Best PlacesWinona County, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Winona 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.
Winona County ranks 704th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Winona 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 Winona County
The parts of Winona 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.
St. Charles
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Goodview
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Winona
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Scores across Winona County run from about the 16th to the 83rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Winona County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Winona County ranks high
- BikingBetter than 94% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than 91% of counties
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of counties
- Short commute17.6 minutes each way, better than 89% of counties
Where Winona County ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of counties
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 22% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 35% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 38% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Winona County
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Winona County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,948, 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 Winona County's effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Winona County
Winona County runs younger 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 Winona County.
Who works in Winona County, and how
Work in Winona County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Winona County
Winona County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of counties and more parkland per resident than 98% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Winona County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Winona County growing, and who is moving in?
Winona County has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Minneapolis, MN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Winona County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Winona County, month by month
Winona County sees roughly 131 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 21° | 14° |
| April | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Winona County
The nearest airport, La Crosse Regional, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 95 miles away.
The best schools in and around Winona County
Schools across Winona County average a B−, better than 60% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Plainview-elgin-millville Pk-3A · 65% proficient
- Chatfield Elementary SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Ridgeway Community SchoolA− · 62% proficient
Top middle schools
- Plainview-elgin-millville JuniorA− · 54% proficient
- Lewiston-altura Intermediate ElB+ · 52% proficient
- Rushford-peterson MiddleB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Plainview-elgin-millville HighB+ · 57% proficient
- Chatfield SecondaryB · 50% proficient
- St. Charles SecondaryB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Winona County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Winona 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 Winona County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Winona County suits
Retirees
The weather beats 83% of counties and health care access beats 73%.
Common questions about living in Winona County
Is Winona County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Winona County ranks 704th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on biking, walkability, and state infrastructure, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Winona County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $241,909. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $75,948 median income, cost of living beats 59% of counties.
Is Winona County safe?
Yes, Winona County is safer than 71% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $314 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Winona County?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 28 with lows near 14. That works out to about 131 pleasant days a year, more than 83% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Winona County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are St. Charles, Goodview, and Winona. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Winona County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Winona County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Winona 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.
Winona County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Winona County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Winona County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Winona County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Winona County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Winona 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.