Best PlacesWales, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wales, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Wales ranks 1,451st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wales
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.
Wales' strengths and weaknesses
Where Wales ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of towns
Where Wales ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 23% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 34% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 40% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wales
A household needs to earn about $119,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wales home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $113,655; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Wales' effective rate of 1.13%, 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 Wales
Wales runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wales.
Who works in Wales, and how
Work in Wales centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Wales
Wales has more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Wales and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wales, month by month
Wales sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 21° | 16° |
| April | 54° | 44° | 35° |
| July | 80° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 59° | 50° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Wales
General Mitchell International sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wales
Schools across Wales average an A−, better than 83% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wales ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Kettle Moraine ExploreA− · 57% proficient
- Magee ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kettle Moraine MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Butler MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Km Global SchA · 75% proficient
- High School Of Health SciencesA− · 60% proficient
- Kettle Moraine HighB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wales school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wales 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 Wales against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wales
Is Wales a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wales ranks 1,451st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, civic engagement, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wales expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $434,508. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $113,655 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Wales safe?
Yes, Wales is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $229 per resident a year.
Compare Wales with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wales. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wales 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.
Wales detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wales: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wales: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wales: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wales: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wales 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.