Best PlacesSurry, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Surry, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Surry ranks 31,081st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on quiet.
The best neighborhoods in Surry
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.
Surry's strengths and weaknesses
Where Surry ranks high
- QuietBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 83% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 81% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of towns
Where Surry ranks low
- Short commute40.6 minutes each way, better than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Surry
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Surry home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $67,960; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Surry's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Surry
Surry runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Surry.
Who works in Surry, and how
Work in Surry centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Surry
The coast is about 47 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Surry, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Surry, month by month
Surry sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 73° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 76° | 65° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Surry
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 38 miles away.
The best schools in and around Surry
Schools across Surry average a B+, better than 83% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Surry ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Luther P. Jackson MiddleA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Surry County HighA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Surry school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Surry 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 Surry against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Surry
Is Surry a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Surry ranks 31,081st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, civic engagement, and good schools, and lowest on long commutes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Surry expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $269,499. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $67,960 median income, cost of living beats 45% of towns.
Is Surry safe?
Surry is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $490 per resident a year.
Compare Surry with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Surry. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Surry 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.
Surry detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Surry: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Surry: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Surry: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Surry: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Surry 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.