These Are The 10 Best Scranton Suburbs

Big city living isn’t for everyone–but at the same time, urban areas certainly have their perks.

There’s the culture, the food, the arts, the food, the energy, and you know, the food. But there are drawbacks. There’s traffic, expensive parking, expensive housing–pretty much, expensive everything, depending on which big city you’re looking at.

But that’s where the suburbs come in–they have all of the benefits of being near big cities, without actually having to be big cities.

Of course, not all suburbs of Scranton are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones. So without further ado, here are the 10 best suburbs around Scranton:

1. Clarks Summit (Photos)
2. Dallas
3. Forty Fort
4. Swoyersville
5. Moosic (Photos)
6. Dunmore (Photos)
7. Kingston (Photos)
8. Avoca
9. West Pittston
10. Jermyn

If you happen to be a resident of Clarks Summit, you’re probably not too surprised to find it on the top our list.

We’ll tell you what makes each of these 10 Scranton ‘burbs better than the rest–but first, a bit about our methodology.

How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Scranton

Figuring out the best ‘burbs around Scranton was pretty simple; we just needed to list several things that people like, and then find out which cities have the most of those things.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible:

• Low unemployment rate
• High Median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college educated people

Then we used the 2010-2014 American Community Survey to research each suburb. FYI: We defined a suburb based on the Census’s designation of being part of an “Urban Cluster,” but not the main city of said urbanized area. For example, the Census considers all of these places to be part of the Scranton, Pa Urbanized Area.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 35 suburbs to evaluate around Scranton.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 35 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index the “Best Suburb near Scranton.” We’re lookin’ at you, Clarks Summit.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the best of the best. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.

1. Clarks Summit

Population: 5,101
Unemployment Rate: 3.6%
Median Home Price: $174,900
Median Income: $64,297

2. Dallas

Population: 2,806
Unemployment Rate: 4.7%
Median Home Price: $164,400
Median Income: $67,128

3. Forty Fort

Population: 4,184
Unemployment Rate: 5.8%
Median Home Price: $137,900
Median Income: $63,112

4. Swoyersville

Population 2014: 5,038
Unemployment Rate: 2.8%
Median Home Price: $125,100
Median Income: $52,837

5. Moosic

Population: 5,712
Unemployment Rate: 4.9%
Median Home Price: $143,500
Median Income: $51,802

6. Dunmore

Population: 13,974
Unemployment Rate: 7.1%
Median Home Price: $158,500
Median Income: $48,422

7. Kingston

Population: 13,105
Unemployment Rate: 7.2%
Median Home Price: $128,200
Median Income: $48,248

8. Avoca

Population 2014: 2,663
Unemployment Rate: 4.9%
Median Home Price: $102,300
Median Income: $48,864

9. West Pittston

Population: 4,834
Unemployment Rate: 5.2%
Median Home Price: $140,300
Median Income: $46,587

10. Jermyn

Population: 2,236
Unemployment Rate: 5.9%
Median Home Price: $126,700
Median Income: $42,188

Welcome to the ‘Burbs

We said it once and we’ll say it again–life in the big city isn’t for everyone. At least not all the time.

So if you’re hankering for some of the amenities of a larger city like Scranton, but don’t want to deal with the drawbacks, one of these suburbs might just be for you.
For more Pennsylvania reading , check out:

• 10 Small Towns In Pennsylvania Where You’d Never Want To Live
• These Are The 10 Drunkest Cities In Pennsylvania
• These Are The 10 Happiest Cities In Pennsylvania

Detailed List Of The Best Burbs To Live Around Scranton