Best PlacesThorne, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Thorne, 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.
Thorne ranks 33,831st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Thorne
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.
Thorne's strengths and weaknesses
Where Thorne ranks high
- Short commute16.3 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- QuietBetter than 86% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 130 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of towns
Where Thorne ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Thorne
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Thorne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,786, 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 Thorne's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Thorne
Thorne runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Thorne.
Who works in Thorne, and how
Work in Thorne centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Thorne
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Thorne.
What the weather is like in Thorne, month by month
Thorne sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 18, with lows near 1. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 18° | 9° | 1° |
| April | 47° | 36° | 27° |
| July | 77° | 66° | 56° |
| October | 51° | 41° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Thorne
The nearest airport, Devils Lake Regional, is about 65 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 415 miles away.
The best schools in and around Thorne
Schools across Thorne average a C, better than 44% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rolette Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Turtle Mountain Community Elementary SchoolF · 9% proficient
- Dunseith Elementary SchoolF · 8% proficient
Top middle schools
- Turtle Mountain Community Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Rolette High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Turtle Mountain Community High SchoolD− · 17% proficient
- Dunseith High SchoolF · 5% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Thorne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Thorne 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 Thorne against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Thorne
Is Thorne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Thorne ranks 33,831st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, heat safety, and low taxes, and lowest on tree cover and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Thorne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $140,633. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $61,786 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Thorne safe?
Thorne is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $787 per resident a year.
Compare Thorne with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Thorne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Thorne 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.
Thorne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Thorne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Thorne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Thorne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Thorne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Thorne 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.