Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Indiana? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Indianapolis, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Indiana suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Hoosier State:
- Zionsville (Photos)
- Carmel (Photos)
- St. John (Photos)
- Westfield (Photos)
- Dyer (Photos)
- Noblesville (Photos)
- Munster (Photos)
- Brownsburg (Photos)
- Auburn (Photos)
- Bargersville (Photos)
Zionsville is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Indiana.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Indiana, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Indiana and the best places to raise a family in Indiana.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in Indiana anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in Indiana, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Hoosier State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Indiana, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in Indiana across a number of criteria from one to 40, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Indiana”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Indiana
Read on to see why Zionsville is the ‘burb with the most, while Gary is probably not the best place to live in Indiana.
1. Zionsville
Population: 25,709
Median Income: $118,190
Median Home Price: $343,400
Zionsville is located 17 miles north of Indianapolis.
2. Carmel
Population: 86,940
Median Income: $106,546
Median Home Price: $306,500
Carmel is located 13 miles north of Indianapolis.
3. St. John
Population: 15,777
Median Income: $98,545
Median Home Price: $257,000
St. John is located 29 miles south of Chicago.
4. Westfield
Population: 34,284
Median Income: $90,048
Median Home Price: $226,000
Westfield is located 17 miles north of Indianapolis.
5. Dyer
Population: 16,133
Median Income: $78,043
Median Home Price: $191,400
Dyer is located 25 miles south of Chicago.
6. Noblesville
Population: 58,719
Median Income: $70,276
Median Home Price: $177,500
Noblesville is located 19 miles north of Indianapolis.
7. Munster
Population: 23,103
Median Income: $70,894
Median Home Price: $212,900
Munster is located 22 miles south of Chicago.
8. Brownsburg
Population: 24,072
Median Income: $68,647
Median Home Price: $153,000
Brownsburg is located 13 miles west of Indianapolis.
9. Auburn
Population: 12,758
Median Income: $45,948
Median Home Price: $104,500
Auburn is located 19 miles north of Fort Wayne.
10. Bargersville
Population: 6,824
Median Income: $72,096
Median Home Price: $159,000
Bargersville is located 16 miles south of Indianapolis.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Indiana
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Indiana according to the data:
- Gary
- East Chicago
- Lake Station
For more Indiana reading, check out:
- 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Indiana
- 10 Most Ghetto Cities In Indiana
- 10 Worst Places To Live In Indiana
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Indiana
City | Rank |
---|---|
Zionsville | 1 |
Carmel | 2 |
St. John | 3 |
Westfield | 4 |
Dyer | 5 |
Noblesville | 6 |
Munster | 7 |
Brownsburg | 8 |
Auburn | 9 |
Bargersville | 10 |
New Whiteland | 11 |
Plainfield | 12 |
Schererville | 13 |
Mccordsville | 14 |
Danville | 15 |
Avon | 16 |
Cumberland | 17 |
Griffith | 18 |
Lebanon | 19 |
Decatur | 20 |
Greenfield | 21 |
Greenwood | 22 |
New Haven | 23 |
Franklin | 24 |
Portage | 25 |
Mooresville | 26 |
Garrett | 27 |
Hobart | 28 |
Bluffton | 29 |
Beech Grove | 30 |
Speedway | 31 |
Huntington | 32 |
Martinsville | 33 |
Lawrence | 34 |
Shelbyville | 35 |
Kendallville | 36 |
Hammond | 37 |
Lake Station | 38 |
East Chicago | 39 |
Gary | 40 |