Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 6,885, settled in 1875.
Nappanee's standout: natural-hazard risk is low. Overall it grades B+, ranked 196th of 585 in Indiana. Its public schools beat 95% of Indiana towns on state tests and graduation and it has 10 miles of trail. Its weakest subject is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 79% of the country. Nappanee’s trail density is 1.9 miles per square mile, where Indiana’s towns sit at 0.2 and U.S. towns at 0.4. On walkability, just 49 of Indiana’s 1,097 towns do better. Nappanee has 7 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Downtown Nappanee Historic District and Frank and Katharine Coppes House.
Where Nappanee beats most towns.
Census counts: 547 in 1880, 6,949 in 2020. The archive holds 16 old photos and papers going back to 2011 and 2 maps from 1958 on.
7 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Indiana), ordered by how far Nappanee is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Nappanee, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Nappanee.
Nappanee carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of Indiana (mostly inland flooding), draws workers from Union Township and beyond and is one of Indiana’s best towns for the outdoors.
Its A for the outdoors ranks #5 of 593 in Indiana.
That puts Nappanee against 1.9% in Indiana’s towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns. 9.5 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Derksen Farm & Wetlands, 29 acres with 1.5 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Derksen Farm & Wetlands | 1.5 mi | 29 |
| 2. Stauffer Park | 0.1 mi | 18 |
| 3. West Side Park | — | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
5,433 jobs are based in Nappanee, 1.7 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. Jobs based here grew from 4,110 in 2013 to 5,433.
About one in 4 of Nappanee’s working residents works in town. Jobs based in Nappanee grew to 5,433 in 2023, 1,323 more than in 2013. Nappanee’s average trip to work is 21 minutes.
| Nappanee | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 23% | 11% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $69,000 | $71,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 98% of Indiana towns, with expected losses of about $178 per resident a year; that rating is what its A+ for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Nappanee is 6 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
20% of adults report frequent mental distress in Nappanee. Nappanee beats the Indiana average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 7. 43% of adults have obesity in Nappanee.
| Nappanee | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 39% | 35% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 32% | 33% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 17% | 14% |
| What stands out | Nappanee | IN |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 11.2% | 8.9% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 19.1% | 15.4% |
| More smokers | 18.7% | 15.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Nappanee has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 17° and about 45 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
64.1% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 48.1% across Indiana.
The typical Nappanee home is worth about $299,000, up 6% in a year, 16% above the Indiana typical home. 63% of Nappanee households own their home.
| Nappanee | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 63% | 76% | 73% |
| Median rent | $856 a month | $947 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
2 within 15 miles of the center of Nappanee
About 1 of every 100 Nappanee residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Indiana.
8.2% of the town is conserved land, across 5 parks and preserves.
7 places in Nappanee on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Nappanee.
City in Indiana, United States
Nappanee is a city in Elkhart and Kosciusko counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 6,648 as of the 2010 U.S. census and had grown to 6,913 by the 2020 U.S. census. The name Nappanee is thought to mean "flour" in the Algonquian language.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Nappanee.
| Town | IN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nappanee | #196 | B+ | B− | B+ | A+ | C− |
| Locke Township | #79 | A | B | — | A+ | C |
| Scott Township | — | — | B− | — | A+ | C− |
| Union Township | #112 | A− | B− | — | A+ | C |
| Jefferson Township | — | — | A− | — | B+ | C |
Scott Township and Jefferson Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Locke Township, Scott Township, Union Township and Jefferson Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Nappanee with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Nappanee grades B+ overall, better than 74% of U.S. towns and #196 of 585 in Indiana. It grades C− for health, B+ for safety and A+ for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a C−.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
3 notable people were born here, including David Crane and Bob Rensberger.
