Best PlacesSlippery Rock, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Slippery Rock, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Slippery Rock ranks 19,878th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Slippery Rock
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Slippery Rock's strengths and weaknesses
Where Slippery Rock ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
Where Slippery Rock ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 18% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 19% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 20% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Slippery Rock
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Slippery Rock home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $61,292, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Slippery Rock's effective rate of 1.04%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Slippery Rock
Slippery Rock runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Slippery Rock.
Who works in Slippery Rock, and how
Work in Slippery Rock centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Slippery Rock
Slippery Rock has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of towns and more parkland per resident than 85% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Slippery Rock and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Slippery Rock, month by month
Slippery Rock sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 86° | 73° | 61° |
| October | 67° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Slippery Rock
Pittsburgh International sits about 40 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.8 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Slippery Rock
Schools across Slippery Rock average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Moraine El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Wilmington Area El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Slippery Rock Area El SchA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Slippery Rock Area MsA · 65% proficient
- Laurel MsB+ · 48% proficient
- Wilmington Area MsB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Wilmington Area HsA+ · 85% proficient
- Laurel HsA · 73% proficient
- Slippery Rock Area HsA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Slippery Rock school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Slippery Rock measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Slippery Rock against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Slippery Rock
Is Slippery Rock a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Slippery Rock ranks 19,878th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, population health, and walkability, and lowest on civic engagement and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Slippery Rock expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $256,331. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $61,292 median income, cost of living beats 19% of towns.
Is Slippery Rock safe?
Slippery Rock is safer than 39% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $306 per resident a year.
Compare Slippery Rock with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Slippery Rock. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Slippery Rock represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Slippery Rock detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Slippery Rock: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Slippery Rock: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Slippery Rock: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Slippery Rock: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Slippery Rock detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.