Best PlacesSnyder County, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Snyder County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Snyder County ranks 957th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.

#957
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Snyder County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Snyder County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

The best areas in Snyder County

The parts of Snyder County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.

#1

Selinsgrove

More adults hold degrees, more residents vote, and health care is easier to reach.

WorseBetter
62nd nationally
#2

Middleburg

More households have young kids, though incomes run lower.

WorseBetter
53rd nationally
#3

Mount Pleasant Mills

WorseBetter
41st nationally

Scores across Snyder County run from about the 21st to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Snyder County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Snyder County with other counties.

Where Snyder County ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 92% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of counties
  • Crime safetyBetter than 87% of counties
  • School gradeB+, better than 82% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of counties

Where Snyder County ranks low

  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of counties
  • Nice weatherabout 67 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than only 29% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Snyder County

A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Snyder County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,321, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$59,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,382
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $220,180 home
Median rent
$931
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,123
Property tax$186
Homeowners insurance$73

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 Snyder County's effective rate of 1.01%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Snyder County

Snyder County runs older than the country.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6418%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Snyder County.


Who works in Snyder County, and how

Work in Snyder County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.9%
below the national average
Job growth
−0.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing16%
Health care & social15%
Retail trade15%
Education12%
Construction9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 83%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in Snyder County

Snyder County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Snyder County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
150
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 37.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 30% of counties
Coffee shops
19
about 4.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 45% of counties
Parkland
160 acres
about 4.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 48% of counties
Living on campus
2,043
students living in college or university housing

Is Snyder County growing, and who is moving in?

Snyder County has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Northumberland County, PA.

Population growth
-2%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
39,627
down from 40,234
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Northumberland County, PA269 / yr
Harrisburg, PA175 / yr
New York, NY143 / yr
Philadelphia, PA126 / yr
Union County, PA125 / yr

Where people leaving Snyder County go

Union County, PA359 / yr
Northumberland County, PA219 / yr
York, PA123 / yr
Williamsport, PA103 / yr
Harrisburg, PA101 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Snyder County, month by month

Snyder County sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January40°30°21°
April65°51°38°
July88°75°63°
October68°54°43°

Flying in and out of Snyder County

The nearest airport, Harrisburg International, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 111 miles away.

Nearest airport
MDT
Harrisburg International, about 43 miles
Airport size
Small hub
112th-busiest in the US, 41 nonstop destinations
Average drive
61 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Snyder County

Schools across Snyder County average a B+, better than 82% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Snyder County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Snyder County 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 Snyder County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Snyder County suits

Families

Schools beat 82% of counties and crime safety beats 87%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

It is quieter than 56%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Snyder County

Is Snyder County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Snyder County ranks 957th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on big-city access, low disaster risk, and low crime, and lowest on taxes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Snyder County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $220,180. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $72,321 median income, cost of living beats 42% of counties.

Is Snyder County safe?

Yes, Snyder County is safer than 87% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $210 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Snyder County?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 21. That works out to about 67 pleasant days a year, more than 15% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Snyder County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Selinsgrove, Middleburg, and Mount Pleasant Mills. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Snyder County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Snyder County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Snyder County 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.

Snyder County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Snyder County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Snyder County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Snyder County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Snyder County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Snyder County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.