Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Ohio? Where you can drive an 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.
If you wanted to move out to the suburbs in Ohio, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Ohio suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here using Saturday Night Science.
$167,653 median income · $531,046 median home price
Located in
Hamilton County, Ohio
Madeira is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 8,726 at the 2010 census. Madeira has a Council-Manager form of government, where the elected City Council appoints a paid City Manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city. Madeira is served by its own police department, while fire service is provided by the Madeira-Indian Hill Joint Fire District. Madeira is largely a residential community, with a small downtown and some light industry. Educational needs are served by the nationally ranked Madeira City Schools. Madeira is a suburb of Cincinnati. In 2007, BusinessWeek ranked it as one of the “Best Places to Raise Kids–For Less.” Madeira, known for its beautiful parks, has a plethora of sports programs.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$155,167 median income · $632,819 median home price
Located in
Franklin County, Ohio
Upper Arlington is a suburb in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus metropolitan area. As of July, 2015, the population was estimated to be 34,907.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$150,995 median income · $677,977 median home price
Located in
Hamilton County, Ohio
Montgomery is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, settled in 1796. The town was a coach stop on the Cincinnati-Zanesville Road, later known as the Montgomery Pike, with an inn, two taverns, a grist mill and a carding mill to process its agricultural products. It would remain a rather sleepy hamlet until the 1960s when it became an affluent bedroom community for people working in Cincinnati. It retains its historic downtown with many other 19th-century houses scattered throughout the community. It is currently accessed from exit 15 off Interstate 71 and exit 50 off Interstate 275, and it is the eastern terminus of the Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway about five miles northeast of the Cincinnati city line. The population was 10,251 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$227,813 median income · $696,160 median home price
Located in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Pepper Pike is an affluent eastern suburb of the Greater Cleveland area in the US state of Ohio. The population was 5,979 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$165,188 median income · $483,221 median home price
Located in
Hamilton County, Ohio
Wyoming is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 8,428 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$122,863 median income · $418,478 median home price
Located in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$238,250 median income · $632,192 median home price
Located in
Licking County, Ohio
New Albany is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, just northeast of the state capital of Columbus. Most of the city is located in Franklin County and a small portion extends into adjacent Licking County. The population was 7,724 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1837, it is now a growing suburb in the Columbus area. New Albany is a very wealthy community, with a per capita income that ranks 12th out of 1,065 places in the state of Ohio. The mayor of New Albany is Democrat Sloan Spalding who was elected in 2015.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$195,495 median income · $567,815 median home price
Located in
Delaware County, Ohio
owell is an affluent city in Delaware County, Ohio, United States. The population was 11,500 at the 2010 census.
The community was first settled around 1801, two years before Ohio became a state. It was named “Middlebury” at the time, because the first settlers came from the Middlebury, Connecticut area. In 1857, Judge Thomas Powell established the first post office in the community, and the residents decided to adopt his name. The town of Powell had its start in the building of the railroad through that territory. Powell was finally incorporated as a municipality in 1947. The population remained small until the late 1980s, when residential development expanding from the northern Columbus metropolitan area reached Powell. In twenty years, the population rose from less than 400 to over 6,000.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$117,672 median income · $554,974 median home price
Located in
Franklin County, Ohio
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$111,643 median income · $330,761 median home price
Located in
Wood County, Ohio
Perrysburg is a city in Wood County, Ohio, United States, along the south side of the Maumee River. The population was 20,623 at the 2010 census. Located about 12 miles southwest of Toledo, it was founded before the now larger port city on Lake Erie. It has since become a suburb of the city.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Ohio’s statewide median.
Ohio statewide median: $71,389
Ohio statewide median: $242,141
On the map
Where Ohio’s best suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Buckeye State
We have to use Saturday Night Science and look at several metrics to give you the best suburbs in Ohio. We want to measure the type of place around major cities that people arguing at a bar would say makes it the “best suburb.”
First, we had to define a suburb. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Ohio, we looked at every town with at least 5,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people.
In other words, suburbs.
We paid particular attention to the following criteria:
- 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 Ohio across these criteria from one to 129, 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 Ohio.”
The result is some of the safest, quietest, and ideal places to live in Ohio.
Read on to see why Madeira is the ‘burb with the most, while East Cleveland is probably not the best place to live in Ohio.
The full plate
The Best Suburbs In Ohio
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Median Income | Median Home Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madeira | 9,484 | $167,653 | $531,046 |
| 2 | Upper Arlington | 36,293 | $155,167 | $632,819 |
| 3 | Montgomery | 10,855 | $150,995 | $677,977 |
| 4 | Pepper Pike | 6,840 | $227,813 | $696,160 |
| 5 | Wyoming | 8,723 | $165,188 | $483,221 |
| 6 | Highland Heights | 8,623 | $122,863 | $418,478 |
| 7 | New Albany | 10,896 | $238,250 | $632,192 |
| 8 | Powell | 14,451 | $195,495 | $567,815 |
| 9 | Grandview Heights | 8,647 | $117,672 | $554,974 |
| 10 | Perrysburg | 25,181 | $111,643 | $330,761 |
| 10 | Bexley | 13,114 | $157,841 | $572,577 |
| 12 | Avon Lake | 25,752 | $115,567 | $422,131 |
| 13 | Rocky River | 21,490 | $94,026 | $393,092 |
| 14 | Hudson | 23,039 | $171,427 | $542,265 |
| 15 | Worthington | 14,938 | $127,382 | $478,891 |
| 16 | Avon | 25,317 | $135,915 | $471,403 |
| 17 | Dublin | 49,294 | $160,296 | $559,786 |
| 18 | Mason | 35,509 | $125,401 | $510,362 |
| 19 | Oakwood | 9,458 | $156,667 | $396,573 |
| 20 | Solon | 23,943 | $139,089 | $452,828 |
| 21 | Beachwood | 13,865 | $106,748 | $483,433 |
| 22 | Aurora | 17,581 | $127,886 | $428,906 |
| 23 | Independence | 7,534 | $115,733 | $354,545 |
| 24 | Blue Ash | 13,455 | $115,313 | $447,598 |
| 25 | Westerville | 38,645 | $109,404 | $446,095 |
| 26 | Brecksville | 13,692 | $135,000 | $437,032 |
| 27 | Broadview Heights | 19,771 | $103,125 | $365,133 |
| 28 | Sylvania | 19,055 | $100,189 | $319,899 |
| 29 | Westlake | 34,104 | $112,200 | $414,010 |
| 30 | Gahanna | 35,486 | $109,061 | $374,129 |
| 31 | Lyndhurst | 13,801 | $91,238 | $230,587 |
| 32 | Hilliard | 38,033 | $128,189 | $384,175 |
| 33 | Twinsburg | 19,410 | $99,144 | $354,964 |
| 34 | Granville | 5,999 | $124,408 | $507,108 |
| 35 | Seven Hills | 11,603 | $97,222 | $299,505 |
| 36 | Loveland | 13,197 | $94,323 | $445,808 |
| 37 | Olmsted Falls | 8,639 | $96,837 | $297,060 |
| 38 | University Heights | 13,394 | $96,971 | $278,811 |
| 39 | Groveport | 5,900 | $93,586 | $311,011 |
| 40 | Fairlawn | 7,711 | $97,055 | $309,743 |
| 41 | Mentor-on-the-Lake | 7,111 | $67,188 | $212,494 |
| 42 | Deer Park | 5,384 | $83,371 | $259,931 |
| 43 | Willowick | 14,162 | $77,228 | $191,619 |
| 44 | Munroe Falls | 5,000 | $81,214 | $274,601 |
| 45 | Waterville | 6,017 | $104,114 | $340,488 |
| 46 | Mentor | 47,171 | $88,949 | $269,569 |
| 47 | Brunswick | 35,246 | $90,663 | $313,497 |
| 48 | Harrison | 13,084 | $100,000 | $316,154 |
| 49 | Maumee | 13,715 | $80,833 | $277,737 |
| 50 | Chardon | 5,249 | $86,613 | $363,602 |
| 51 | Shaker Heights | 28,922 | $104,073 | $342,442 |
| 51 | Monroe | 15,401 | $105,250 | $352,114 |
| 53 | Pickerington | 24,477 | $111,833 | $419,073 |
| 54 | Strongsville | 45,983 | $103,253 | $360,031 |
| 54 | Mayfield Heights | 20,022 | $66,524 | $228,639 |
| 56 | Berea | 18,218 | $74,926 | $239,040 |
| 57 | Stow | 34,240 | $93,727 | $284,989 |
| 58 | Canal Winchester | 10,170 | $131,209 | $415,360 |
| 59 | Marysville | 27,518 | $92,619 | $364,500 |
| 60 | North Olmsted | 31,924 | $84,363 | $270,520 |
| 61 | Lebanon | 21,501 | $83,685 | $397,421 |
| 62 | Wickliffe | 12,659 | $81,750 | $193,210 |
| 63 | Trenton | 13,583 | $80,635 | $279,523 |
| 64 | Delaware | 44,589 | $99,786 | $407,929 |
| 65 | Willoughby Hills | 9,975 | $67,214 | $349,448 |
| 66 | Willoughby | 24,046 | $71,309 | $239,414 |
| 67 | Kirtland | 6,911 | $110,455 | $404,639 |
| 68 | North Ridgeville | 36,627 | $96,698 | $325,234 |
| 69 | Lakewood | 50,007 | $68,954 | $286,113 |
| 70 | Medina | 25,950 | $77,385 | $374,184 |
| 71 | Brook Park | 18,284 | $71,332 | $191,188 |
| 72 | Milford | 6,497 | $78,057 | $331,272 |
| 73 | Middleburg Heights | 15,786 | $78,815 | $271,583 |
| 74 | Tallmadge | 18,335 | $89,410 | $282,064 |
| 75 | Grafton | 5,657 | $90,724 | $307,182 |
| 76 | Parma Heights | 20,581 | $61,009 | $214,164 |
| 77 | Streetsboro | 17,661 | $90,274 | $279,257 |
| 78 | Oberlin | 8,329 | $81,308 | $238,965 |
| 79 | Amherst | 12,906 | $90,725 | $274,430 |
| 80 | Wauseon | 7,505 | $64,477 | $223,917 |
| 81 | Cleveland Heights | 44,497 | $72,826 | $202,639 |
| 82 | Macedonia | 12,152 | $101,285 | $339,074 |
| 83 | Reading | 10,502 | $61,866 | $231,958 |
| 84 | Bedford | 12,931 | $57,308 | $152,982 |
| 84 | Sharonville | 14,030 | $74,649 | $284,334 |
| 86 | Northwood | 5,193 | $77,268 | $177,941 |
| 87 | Fairview Park | 17,018 | $78,865 | $278,445 |
| 88 | Bowling Green | 29,983 | $45,154 | $259,039 |
| 89 | South Lebanon | 6,712 | $104,511 | $386,045 |
| 90 | Oregon | 19,799 | $82,197 | $224,860 |
| 91 | Oxford | 21,753 | $40,764 | $334,774 |
| 93 | Pataskala | 18,223 | $92,033 | $382,770 |
| 93 | South Euclid | 21,534 | $81,297 | $178,615 |
| 93 | Cuyahoga Falls | 50,909 | $72,705 | $213,993 |
| 95 | Sheffield Lake | 8,966 | $69,632 | $203,339 |
| 95 | Rossford | 6,323 | $71,199 | $193,165 |
| 97 | Heath | 10,644 | $71,917 | $303,572 |
| 98 | Eastlake | 17,493 | $62,072 | $204,855 |
| 99 | Parma | 79,870 | $69,295 | $210,914 |
| 100 | Kent | 27,116 | $42,964 | $243,706 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS via Saturday Night Science. 129 Ohio suburbs within 30 miles of a city over 200,000.
Summary
Summary: There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Ohio
If you’re measuring the locations in Ohio where there are lots to do, and everyone wants to live, this is an accurate list.
The best suburbs in Ohio are Madeira, Upper Arlington, Montgomery, Pepper Pike, Wyoming, Highland Heights, New Albany, Powell, Grandview Heights, and Perrysburg.
