Best PlacesWood River Junction, RI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wood River Junction, 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.
Wood River Junction ranks 7,117th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wood River Junction
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.
Wood River Junction's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wood River Junction ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- Household income$127,323 median, better than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
Where Wood River Junction ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,325 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wood River Junction
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wood River Junction home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $127,323, 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 Wood River Junction's effective rate of 1.28%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wood River Junction
Wood River Junction runs younger 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 Wood River Junction.
Who works in Wood River Junction, and how
Work in Wood River Junction centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Wood River Junction
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Wood River Junction, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wood River Junction, month by month
Wood River Junction sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 68° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Wood River Junction
The nearest airport, Westerly State, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 61 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wood River Junction
Schools across Wood River Junction average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Chariho Regional Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Chariho High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wood River Junction school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wood River Junction 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 Wood River Junction against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wood River Junction
Is Wood River Junction a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wood River Junction ranks 7,117th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on state finances and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wood River Junction expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $398,654. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $127,323 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Wood River Junction safe?
Yes, Wood River Junction is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $135 per resident a year.
Compare Wood River Junction with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wood River Junction. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wood River Junction 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.
Wood River Junction detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wood River Junction: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wood River Junction: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wood River Junction: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wood River Junction: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wood River Junction 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.