Rating The Suburbs: How We Did It 2026

In the years that we’ve rated Cleveland’s suburbs, we’ve evaluated three major factors: safety, education and housing. We also looked at other qualities that make a suburb desirable such as public services, diversity and walkability. This year we took it a step further and looked at entertainment within these communities. 

Scores are assigned to each suburb for every category used in the rankings. Those scores are based on the year's numbers. We then add up the category scores, weighting certain categories more than others. Safety and education, for example, are given more weight than property taxes, which are given more weight than environmental infractions. 

The Top 25 are those suburbs with the highest combined scores — in other words, the suburbs that perform best in all of the categories combined.

Related: Cleveland's Top 25 Suburbs of 2026: Best Places to Live

How We Did It: Overall rankings are determined using raw data that is converted into points calculated from the average in each category. Rankings for safety and education are awarded based on the total scores in each category.

Education: The State of Ohio collects information from each school district each year to compile its report card. The website can be found at https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov. We used the information compiled for the 2024-25 school year for our list. The state’s 26 possible indicators for student performance are based on standardized tests, a gifted indicator that measures how gifted students are performing, a chronic absenteeism improvement indicator measuring the number of students who are chronically absent (missing at least 10% of the school year) as well as schools’ efforts to reduce that number, and an end-of-course improvement indicator measuring the performance and improvement on retaken end-of-course tests. Each school’s possible indicators vary depending on which tests its students take. The state’s Performance Index rewards the performance of every student, not just those who score “proficient” or higher. The scores range from 0 to 120, with 100 being the goal. The state tests students in reading and math every year from third through eighth grades. It also tests science in fifth and eighth grades. The state has transitioned from its Ohio Graduation Tests to end-of-course tests. Those include English I & II, math I & II, geometry, algebra, American history, American government and biology. In our rankings, the end-of-course tests are expressed as an average percentage of all students who scored at proficiency or above. The state’s value-added ranking measures the impact schools and teachers have on students’ academic progress rates from year to year or another period of time, using student achievement data. There are four value-added measure grades combined to get a Progress Component Grade. The state calculates this progress made for all students, and then for subgroups of gifted students, students with disabilities and students whose academic performance was in the lowest 20% of students statewide.

Median Home Sale Price: Sources: The county auditors or fiscal officers’ offices provided figures for valid sales of single-family homes in 2014, 2019 and 2025.

Property Tax: Sources: 2025 rates of taxation are from county auditors, treasurers or fiscal officers and the Ohio Department of Taxation. They include each community’s rollback and reduction for owner-occupied residential property for levies passed before November 2013. 

Population, Poverty, Diversity & Owner-Occupied Housing: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019-2025 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Diversity points are awarded based on the suburb’s percentage of minority residents (non-white, Hispanic or multiracial), with the most points given to those suburbs closest to a 50% balance.

Safety: Sources: Statistics for the calendar year 2025 are provided by each suburb. Crimes per 1,000 in Richfield Village are based on the combined populations of Richfield Village and Richfield Township, since the Richfield Village police patrol both and do not keep separate village stats. As noted on the Safety charts, data submitted by suburbs after the deadline are reflected on the chart but were not calculated into the overall ranking.

Environmental Infractions: Source: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s database of reported polluted sites, which is continuously updated and includes reports of polluted sites that the EPA has not fully investigated.

Community Services: Sources: The mayor’s office of each suburb informed us which of the following services are available to all residents: tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball and softball diamonds, indoor or outdoor ice rinks, indoor swimming pools, outdoor swimming pools, public playgrounds, recreation centers, public skateboarding parks, senior services, youth services, free mulch, free leaf pickup, free garbage pickup and recycling programs.

Entertainment Score:  Sources: The State of Ohio maintains a database for liquor licenses held by each suburb. Only retail D-Class permits, these allow purchase and consumption on site, were used. Restaurants were gathered using TripAdvisor. Bars and liquor licenses were adjusted to account for overlap with restaurant establishments.

Walk Score: Sources: Walk Score Data Service gathers walk scores, transit scores and bike scores for geographic areas. This score represents all three of those scores combined. Walk score measures walkability based on walking routes to destinations such as grocery stores, schools, parks, restaurants and retail. Transit score measures transit accessibility, calculates distance to closest stop on each route, analyzes route frequency and type. Bike Score measures bike accessibility based on bike infrastructure, topography, destinations and road connectivity.

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