Best PlacesTopeka, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Topeka metro, 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.
Photo by Dylan Edwards Kswx29, CC BY 3.0, via commons
Topeka ranks 244th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on state infrastructure and health care access. The weaker spots are the schools, transit, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Topeka 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 Topeka
The towns and districts of the Topeka 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.
Osage City & Auburn
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Holton
Biking is worse and fewer households have young kids.
Meriden, Oskaloosa & McLouth
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Silver Lake
Advertised internet is slower and streets are more car-dependent.
Carbondale
Prices have run up less.
Downtown Topeka
Fewer residents vote and more homes sit empty.
Tecumseh
Fewer adults hold degrees and health care is harder to reach.
Topeka shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Topeka's strengths and weaknesses
Topeka lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure, health care access, and short commutes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The schools, transit, and taxes hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Topeka ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Short commute20.6 minutes each way, better than 79% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 72% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$746 a month, better than 70% of metro areas
Where Topeka ranks low
- School gradeC−, better than only 10% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 24% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Topeka
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Topeka home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,123, 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 Topeka's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Topeka
Topeka'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 Topeka.
Who works in Topeka, and how
Work in Topeka 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 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Topeka
Topeka has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 92% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Topeka and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Topeka growing, and who is moving in?
Topeka has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Kansas City, MO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Topeka go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Topeka, month by month
Topeka sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 71° | 56° | 43° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 68° |
| October | 74° | 58° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Topeka
The nearest airport, Manhattan Regional, is about 52 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 56 miles away.
The best schools in and around Topeka
Schools across Topeka average a C−, better than 10% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Silver Lake ElemA+ · 74% proficient
- Elmont ElemA− · 62% proficient
- Jay Shideler ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- Washburn Rural Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Jefferson West MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Shawnee Heights MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Washburn Rural HighC · 33% proficient
- Silver Lake Jr-sr HighC · 32% proficient
- Shawnee Heights HighC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Topeka school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Topeka 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 Topeka against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Topeka suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 72% of metro areas and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Topeka
Is Topeka a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Topeka ranks 244th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, health care access, and short commutes, and lowest on the schools and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Topeka expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $189,606. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $76,123 median income, cost of living beats 72% of metro areas.
Is Topeka safe?
Topeka is safer than 38% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $396 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Topeka?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 20. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Topeka?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Osage City & Auburn, Holton, and Meriden, Oskaloosa & McLouth. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Topeka good for families?
Schools beat 10% of metro areas, crime safety beats 38%, and childcare runs $746 a month.
Is Topeka good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 72% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 49% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Topeka with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Topeka. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Topeka 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.
Topeka detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Topeka: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Topeka: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Topeka: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Topeka: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Topeka 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.