Tree cover, clean air, little traffic
This lens weights the environment measure above everything else: air quality, distance from heavy traffic, and how much of the ground sits under tree canopy. It is the closest the index gets to asking where the physical surroundings are most pleasant.
Tree canopy is worth calling out because it varies more sharply across Los Angeles than almost any other measure here, and it tracks closely with historic investment. The gap between the leafiest and barest parts of the city is not an accident of geography.
Same weighting, on a map of all 7,644 areas, where you can change the balance and see every measure behind a place.
Greenest, cleanest areas
Mean score across every measured cell in each neighborhood, ranked against 263 neighborhoods. Names carried by fewer than three measured cells are left out, as are the cluster names this project invented where no established neighborhood name existed.
| # | Neighborhood | Environment score | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Los Angeles | 82 | $1,325/mo |
| 2 | Quartz Hill | 82 | $1,600/mo |
| 3 | Sierra Madre | 78 | $1,950/mo |
| 4 | Altadena | 73 | $2,375/mo |
| 5 | La Crescenta-Montrose | 70 | $2,350/mo |
| 6 | Palmdale | 70 | $1,750/mo |
| 7 | Lancaster | 69 | $1,650/mo |
| 8 | Sunland | 69 | $1,550/mo |
| 9 | Highland Park | 68 | $1,750/mo |
| 10 | Leimert Park | 67 | $1,275/mo |
| 11 | Rancho Santa Margarita | 67 | $2,750/mo |
| 12 | South Pasadena | 66 | $2,100/mo |
| 13 | Mount Washington | 66 | $1,875/mo |
| 14 | East San Gabriel | 65 | $2,200/mo |
| 15 | San Marino | 64 | $3,125/mo |
| 16 | Temple City | 63 | $2,025/mo |
| 17 | Tujunga | 63 | $2,225/mo |
| 18 | View Park-Windsor Hills | 63 | $1,775/mo |
| 19 | Montecito Heights | 62 | $1,675/mo |
| 20 | Rancho Palos Verdes | 62 | $2,950/mo |
| 21 | Palos Verdes Estates | 62 | $3,075/mo |
| 22 | La Habra Heights | 62 | $2,050/mo |
| 23 | Valinda | 62 | $2,175/mo |
| 24 | Woodbury | 62 | $3,400/mo |
| 25 | La Cañada Flintridge | 62 | $3,050/mo |
Areas that score well here are frequently expensive and frequently far from transit. That is the trade this ranking makes visible rather than one it resolves.
Use this data
Free to reuse with credit, including commercially.
How this is measured
- Environment 60%. CalEnviroScreen 4.0 diesel PM + traffic proximity, NLCD tree canopy
- Affordability 15%. ACS B25064 median gross rent (block group)
- Location access 15%. EPA Smart Location Database walkability, transit access, density
- Lifestyle 10%. OpenStreetMap place counts (restaurant, coffee, grocery, park, gym)
Every measure is a percentile rank from 0 to 100 against all 7,644 populated cells in Los Angeles and Orange County, so a score describes how an area compares within the region rather than against a national baseline. This lens scores 7,644 of them. Block-group figures are blended onto the grid by distance-weighted nearest centroids.
Data compiled 2026-08-20, methodology v1. Free to reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0; place counts come from OpenStreetMap and carry share-alike. Full terms, column definitions and limitations are on the data page.
Other ways to read the index
- Compare two places side by side
Every measure at once for up to four areas, each drawn against the whole region.
- Where rent goes furthest
Neighborhoods across LA and Orange County ranked by median rent against every other area in the region, using ACS block-group data.
- Cheap rent without needing a car
Neighborhoods in LA and Orange County that combine low rent with walkable streets and transit access, ranked from block-group and EPA walkability data.
- Low rent and clean air together
Where lower rent overlaps with cleaner air in LA and Orange County, using CalEnviroScreen diesel particulate and traffic data alongside ACS rents.
- Plenty nearby, easy to get around
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked on restaurants, cafes, groceries and parks nearby combined with walkability and transit access.
- Where home prices go furthest
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked by ACS median home value, showing where buying costs least relative to the rest of the region.
- The areas with no affordable escape from pollution
LA and Orange County areas where high environmental exposure coincides with high rent burden, combining CalEnviroScreen with ACS rent-to-income data.
- Where police report the fewest incidents
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked by police-reported violent and property incident rates, from LAPD, LA County Sheriff and CA DOJ records.
- Where growing up led to higher adult earnings
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked on Opportunity Atlas outcomes: what children raised in each area earned as adults, from Census-linked tax records.