Best PlacesThornton, MS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Thornton, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Thornton ranks 50,312th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#50,312
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Thornton

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Thornton 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.

Thornton's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Thornton with other towns.

Where Thornton ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 91% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 82% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$693 a month, better than 67% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 62% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 82 pleasant days a year, better than 50% of towns

Where Thornton ranks low

  • School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
  • Household income$37,216 median, better than only 3% of towns
  • BikingBetter than only 3% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Thornton

A household needs to earn about $11,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Thornton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $37,216, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$11,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$262
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $45,600 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$233
Property tax$14
Homeowners insurance$15

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 Thornton's effective rate of 0.37%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Thornton

Thornton runs younger than the country.

Median age
32
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
9%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3425%
35 to 4925%
50 to 6419%
65 and older9%

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


Who works in Thornton, and how

Work in Thornton centers on manufacturing and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
0%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.0%
below the national average
Job growth
−52.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing21%
Transportation & warehousing15%
Health care & social14%
Construction12%
Public administration11%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 98%
  • Work from home 0%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Thornton

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Thornton.


What the weather is like in Thornton, month by month

Thornton sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January57°46°37°
April77°65°55°
July93°82°74°
October80°66°55°

Flying in and out of Thornton

The nearest airport, Greenville Mid-Delta, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 136 miles away.

Nearest airport
GLH
Greenville Mid-Delta, about 48 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
68 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Thornton

Schools across Thornton average an F, better than 1% of towns.

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 Thornton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Thornton 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 Thornton against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Thornton

Is Thornton a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Thornton ranks 50,312th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on the schools and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Thornton expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $45,600. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $37,216 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.

Is Thornton safe?

Thornton is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $484 per resident a year.


Compare Thornton with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Thornton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

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