Best PlacesWadena, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wadena, 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.
Wadena ranks 37,648th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wadena
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.
Wadena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wadena ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 75% of towns
Where Wadena ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wadena
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wadena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,249, 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 Wadena's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Wadena
Wadena 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 Wadena.
Who works in Wadena, and how
Work in Wadena centers on construction and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wadena
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wadena.
What the weather is like in Wadena, month by month
Wadena sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Wadena
The nearest airport, University of Illinois/Willard, is about 70 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wadena
Schools across Wadena average a B, better than 63% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Prairie Crossing Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- South Newton Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- South Newton Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Tri-county Jr/sr High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Benton Central Jr-sr High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- South Newton Senior High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wadena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wadena 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 Wadena against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wadena
Is Wadena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wadena ranks 37,648th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, cheap car insurance, and big-city access, and lowest on tree cover and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wadena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $226,746. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $59,249 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Wadena safe?
Wadena is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
Compare Wadena with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wadena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wadena 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.
Wadena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wadena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wadena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wadena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wadena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wadena 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.