Best PlacesWestmoreland County, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Westmoreland County, 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.
Westmoreland County ranks 480th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low disaster risk and health care access. The weaker spots are noise, state infrastructure, and property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Westmoreland County
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 Westmoreland County
The parts of Westmoreland County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Irwin
Schools score higher, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Export, Apollo & Vandergrift
More households have young kids.
Greensburg & Latrobe
Commutes are shorter.
New Kensington, Lower Burrell & Murrysville
Tree cover is thicker, though prices have run up more.
Scottdale, New Stanton & Youngwood
It is noisier and fewer adults hold degrees.
Mount Pleasant & Ligonier
More homes sit empty.
New Alexandria
Homes cost less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Jeannette
Fewer residents vote.
Belle Vernon, Monessen & West Newton
Crime runs higher and health care is harder to reach.
Westmoreland County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Westmoreland County's strengths and weaknesses
Westmoreland County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low disaster risk is the standout, in the top 2% of counties. Health care access and good schools follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, state infrastructure, and property taxes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Westmoreland County ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of counties
- School gradeB+, better than 90% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than 86% of counties
Where Westmoreland County ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 13% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of counties
- Cheap childcare$923 a month, better than only 25% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Westmoreland County
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Westmoreland County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,120, 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 Westmoreland County's effective rate of 1.23%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Westmoreland County
Westmoreland County 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 Westmoreland County.
Who works in Westmoreland County, and how
Work in Westmoreland County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Westmoreland County
Westmoreland County has more parkland per resident than 67% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Westmoreland County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Westmoreland County growing, and who is moving in?
Westmoreland County has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Pittsburgh, PA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Westmoreland County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Westmoreland County, month by month
Westmoreland County sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 63° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Westmoreland County
The nearest airport, Arnold Palmer Regional, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 35 miles away.
The best schools in and around Westmoreland County
Schools across Westmoreland County average a B+, better than 90% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Sunset Valley El SchA+ · 98% proficient
- Sunrise El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Hahntown El SchA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Norwin MsA+ · 70% proficient
- Wendover MsA · 62% proficient
- Franklin Regional MsA · 61% proficient
Top high schools
- Penn Trafford HsA+ · 91% proficient
- Franklin Regional ShsA+ · 90% proficient
- Norwin ShsA+ · 82% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Westmoreland County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Westmoreland County 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 Westmoreland County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Westmoreland County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Westmoreland County
Is Westmoreland County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Westmoreland County ranks 480th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low disaster risk, health care access, and good schools, and lowest on noise and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Westmoreland County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $215,465. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $81,120 median income, cost of living beats 73% of counties.
Is Westmoreland County safe?
Yes, Westmoreland County is safer than 84% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Westmoreland County?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 24. That works out to about 82 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Westmoreland County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Irwin, Export, Apollo & Vandergrift, and Greensburg & Latrobe. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Westmoreland County good for families?
Schools beat 90% of counties, crime safety beats 84%, and childcare runs $923 a month.
Is Westmoreland County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 60% of counties. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Westmoreland County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Westmoreland County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Westmoreland County 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.
Westmoreland County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Westmoreland County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Westmoreland County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Westmoreland County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Westmoreland County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Westmoreland County 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.