Best PlacesWhiting, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Whiting, 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.
Whiting ranks 22,783rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Whiting
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.
Whiting's strengths and weaknesses
Where Whiting ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
Where Whiting ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 13% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Whiting
A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Whiting home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,320, 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 Whiting's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Whiting
Whiting's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Whiting.
Who works in Whiting, and how
Work in Whiting centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Whiting
Whiting has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns and more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Whiting and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Whiting, month by month
Whiting sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 83° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Whiting
Chicago Midway International sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Whiting
Schools across Whiting average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Nathan Hale Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Washington G Elem SchoolD− · 16% proficient
- Addams Elem SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Whiting Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Whiting High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- East Chicago Central High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Washington G High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Whiting school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Whiting 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 Whiting against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Whiting
Is Whiting a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Whiting ranks 22,783rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, biking, and cell coverage, and lowest on noise and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Whiting expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $180,320. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $69,320 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Whiting safe?
Whiting is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $528 per resident a year.
Compare Whiting with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Whiting. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Whiting 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.
Whiting detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Whiting: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Whiting: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Whiting: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Whiting: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Whiting 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.