Thinking of moving to Seattle with kids? Or are you already living here but now you are expecting a child (or have a child who will soon start formal schooling) and wondering if you should switch neighborhoods?
Safety, school quality and diversity are some of the top considerations for places to live for many families. While you can look at these things at the city-level, the truth is that there is a huge range across all of these dimensions by neighborhood within Seattle.
We should also add that the information we present here is only a partial picture of what makes a neighborhood great and not-so-great. A given location might have some crime but also a close-knit neighborhood and proximity to a pleasant retail center. Not to mention that each family has different sets of priorities and constraints – for example, where do the parents need to commute for work?
But even with these considerations, many families will want to know something about the safety, school quality and diversity of the Seattle neighborhoods they may be considering. We combed through the data for you to get you the skinny.
Which Seattle neighborhood has the best schools?
To get a sense of school performance, we use GreatSchool.org’s overall ratings. According to their website, GreatSchool’s overall ratings factor in test scores, student progress, equity and college readiness. While test scores may not tell the whole story of whether a given school is the right one for your child, it can be an important data point for many families.
Generally speaking, the Seattle schools with the higher GreatSchool overall ratings are in North Seattle (but not the very northern parts), West-Central Seattle (Queen Anne and Magnolia), and West Seattle. There are a couple of notable positive exceptions with the northern tip of central Seattle (Montlake, Eastlake and north Capitol Hill) having some schools with above-average ratings, as well as Maple Elementary and Wing Luke Elementary schools in the southern part of Seattle. Here is a map of public elementary schools in Seattle, color-coded by the overall rating calculated by GreatSchools.org. Darker purple indicates higher scores.
Which Seattle neighborhood is the safest?
Below is a map from the Seattle police department’s crime dashboard (accessed on 7/20/2023 for all types of crime to date in 2023). The darker shades of blue indicate more crime than the areas with lighter shades. Note that this data is not adjusted for the number of people living there.
The map above suggests that crimes are concentrated in the areas around downtown (including Queen Anne and Capitol Hill) as well as the middle strip of North Seattle (including the University District, Roosevelt/Ravenna, and Northgate). Though South Seattle has a reputation for more crime, according to this map it is seems to experience less crime on the whole compared to many parts of North Seattle.
Which Seattle neighborhoods are more diverse?
The handy map below from the City of Seattle gives a good sense of the racial makeup of different areas of the city. The shading indicates the % of the residents who are non-white while the little pie charts indicate the racial makeup of the non-white residents.
As you can see in the map, North and West Seattle have the highest percentage of white residents, while South Seattle has the lowest. Central Seattle is somewhat in the middle.
Amongst the neighborhoods with a greater share of non-white residents, there are also differences in the racial makeup. Central Seattle tends to have a higher proportion of black residents while many neighborhoods in South Seattle have a high proportion of Asian residents.
So, what is the best neighborhood for families with kids in Seattle?
The answer is, of course, it depends. In North Seattle, schools tend to have higher test scores but you trade off on lower diversity and by some measures, higher crime. West Seattle schools rate higher but you trade off on lower diversity and also, it can be harder to commute to other areas of the city. Central Seattle is a mixed bag and kind of in the middle on many of these dimensions. South Seattle has incredible diversity but schools rate lower (at least using the GreatSchools ratings). And of course, each neighborhood (and even house) will have different walkability to local amenities, commuting convenience and housing price tag.
Leave a Reply