South HavenIN
A town of 7,241.
Is South Haven a good place to live?
South Haven gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $178K, 2 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. It grades C+ overall, 449th of 585 graded towns in Indiana. The low prices come with trade-offs. Residents are less healthy than 80% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. 13% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in South Haven, below both the Indiana town median (22%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%). Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 75% of U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Haven Hollow Park, at 26 acres.
What makes South Haven stand out
Where South Haven beats most towns.
99% of working residents leave South Haven for work
Where South Haven’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How South Haven grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Indiana), ordered by how far South Haven is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Soldier Field and 117 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around South Haven. Close and well known come first.
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw39 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw29 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
4 mi National ParkIndiana Dunes National Park2.6M visitors a year
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw36 mi Stadium & arenaUnited CenterPhoto credits
Soldier Field: Photo by Joon Han Contact: [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wrigley Field: Ryan Dickey, CC BY 2.0 · Barack Obama Presidential Center: AlphaBeta135, CC0 · Indiana Dunes National Park: J. Crocker, Attribution · Rate Field: User Enoch Lai on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · United Center: User:JeremyA, CC BY-SA 2.5
_-_Chicago,_IL_-_June_2026.jpg){kind=link}
Moving to South Haven: who provides what
South Haven is unincorporated, so Porter County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in South Haven.
South Haven has homes that are cheap against local pay and sends most of its workers to Portage and beyond.
South Haven earns a C− for health
43% of adults have obesity in South Haven. South Haven beats the Indiana average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 40% of adults sleep under 7 hours in South Haven.
| South Haven | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 39% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 37% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 17% | 14% |
| What stands out | South Haven | IN |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 23.5% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults seeing a dentist | 56% | 61.2% |
| Fewer adults screened for colon cancer | 61.4% | 66.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents commute out of South Haven
South Haven has 395 jobs for its 3,423 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave South Haven for work: only 1% work in town. Since 2013, South Haven has lost 71 jobs, to 395 in 2023. 4.6% of South Haven workers work from home.
| South Haven | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 1.5% | 11% | 8% |
| Work from home | 4.6% | 7.8% | 11% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
South Haven faces a low natural-hazard risk, led by cold waves
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 78% of U.S. communities. One flood insurance claim has been paid in South Haven since 2015.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Snowy winters and pleasant summers in South Haven
South Haven has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 17° and about 40 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Haven Hollow Park | — | 26 |
| 2. Field of Dreams Park | — | 11 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The median home in South Haven sells for about $229K
At 2 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 91% of Indiana towns; that ratio is one input to its A− for cost of living.
South Haven’s median rent is $1,297 a month.
| South Haven | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,297 a month | $946 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 76% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about South Haven
Colleges nearby
2 within 15 miles of the center of South Haven
About 5 of every 100 South Haven residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Indiana.
About South Haven
Census-designated place in Indiana, United States
South Haven is a census-designated place in Portage Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 census, South Haven had a population of 5,084.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.2 sq mi
- Elevation
- 653 ft
- Area code
- 219
South Haven’s neighbors
One town shares a border with South Haven.
| Town | IN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Haven | #449 | C+ | A− | — | C+ | C− |
| Wheeler | — | — | — | — | — | — |
South Haven reports no FBI crime data of its own. Wheeler isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare South Haven with a neighbor →
Questions about South Haven
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is South Haven, IN a good place to live?
South Haven grades C+ overall, better than 39% of U.S. towns and #449 of 585 in Indiana. It grades C− for health and C+ for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is South Haven, IN expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $178,000, 31% below the Indiana typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.