Best PlacesTerre Haute, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Terre Haute metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Huwmanbeing (original), Yassie (jpeg conversion), via wiki
Terre Haute ranks 361st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the weather and the cost of living against local pay. It does better on cheap car insurance, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Terre Haute metro
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 Terre Haute
The towns and districts of the Terre Haute metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Brazil & North Terre Haute
Crime runs lower, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Clay City
It is quieter, though biking is worse.
Carlisle
Fewer households have young kids and tree cover is thinner.
Clinton
Prices have run up less, though advertised internet is slower.
Sullivan
Fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Terre Haute
Streets are more walkable, though fewer residents vote.
West Terre Haute
More homes sit empty and health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Terre Haute run from about the 2nd to the 83rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Terre Haute's strengths and weaknesses
Terre Haute ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Cheap car insurance, state infrastructure, and affordable childcare carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the weather, the cost of living against local pay, and low incomes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Terre Haute ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 79% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$773 a month, better than 65% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 64% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 62% of metro areas
Where Terre Haute ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Household income$62,074 median, better than only 6% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Terre Haute
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Terre Haute home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,074, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Terre Haute's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Terre Haute
Terre Haute's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Terre Haute.
Who works in Terre Haute, and how
Work in Terre Haute centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Terre Haute
Terre Haute has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Terre Haute and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Terre Haute growing, and who is moving in?
Terre Haute has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Indianapolis, IN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Terre Haute go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Terre Haute, month by month
Terre Haute sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 21° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 41° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 65° |
| October | 72° | 57° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Terre Haute
Indianapolis International sits about 61 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.2 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Terre Haute
Schools across Terre Haute average a C+, better than 37% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Lost Creek Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Staunton Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Riley Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Clay Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Honey Creek Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Terre Haute South Vigo High SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Terre Haute North Vigo High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Clay City Jr-sr High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Terre Haute school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Terre Haute 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 Terre Haute against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Terre Haute suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Terre Haute
Is Terre Haute a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Terre Haute ranks 361st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, state infrastructure, and affordable childcare, and lowest on the weather 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 Terre Haute expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $153,316. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $62,074 median income, cost of living beats 4% of metro areas.
Is Terre Haute safe?
Terre Haute is safer than 10% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $432 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Terre Haute?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 21. That works out to about 57 pleasant days a year, more than 1% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Terre Haute?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Brazil & North Terre Haute, Clay City, and Carlisle. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Terre Haute good for families?
Schools beat 37% of metro areas, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $773 a month.
Is Terre Haute good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 4% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 64% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Terre Haute with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Terre Haute. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Terre Haute 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.
Terre Haute detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Terre Haute: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Terre Haute: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Terre Haute: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Terre Haute: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Terre Haute 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.