These Are The 10 Snobbiest Places In Indiana


We analyzed over 100 places in Indiana to identify the ones that probably think they’re better than you.

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When it comes to being a snob, there are all types. You’ve got your Wine Snobs, your Book Snobs, and of course, your Clothes Snobs. Then there are the Technology Snobs, Car Snobs, and yes, even City Snobs—as in, I’m better than you because I live in (insert snooty city here).

Now, if you’re reading this from Indiana, you might think that there’s no way you could be a snob. With your mid-western hospitality and attitude, you bask in humble pie.

And while you certainly may be less snooty than the rest of the country, there are always pockets of snobbery in every state and Indiana is no exception.

So without further adieu, here are the 10 snobbiest places in The Hoosier State, starting with our winner, Zionsville:

  1. Zionsville (Photos)
  2. Carmel (Photos)
  3. Avon (Photos)
  4. Munster (Photos)
  5. Batesville (Photos)
  6. Dyer (Photos)
  7. Chesterton (Photos)
  8. Valparaiso (Photos)
  9. Granger
  10. Crown Point (Photos)

So I guess Zionsville is the Zion of Indiana snobbery.

And to be clear, we didn’t form this list based on our own biases — we relied on the cold hard data. For more on how we ran the numbers, keep on reading. Then we’ll take a closer look at each of our top 10 snobbiest places.

For more Indiana reading, check out:

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How We Determined The Snobbiest Places In Indiana

If you’re feeling a bit haughty about these rankings, calm down. See, we relied on facts and figures to create this list not just our opinions of those cities.

We started by making a list of every place in Indiana over 5,000 people based on the 2013 American Community Survey (We excluded the crazy townships of Indiana). That left us with 101 places in the Hoosier State.

We then looked at the following snob-tastic criteria for each of the places on the list:

  • Median home price (Higher is snobbier)
  • Median household income (Higher is snobbier)
  • Percent of population with a college degree (Higher is snobbier)
  • Private schools per capita (Higher is snobbier)
  • Theaters per capita (Higher is snobbier)
  • Art galleries per capita (Higher is snobbier)

Next, we ranked each place in each category from one to 101, where the lower the score, the snobbier the place. Finally, we averaged each place’s rankings where the place with the lowest score was crowned ‘The Snobbiest Place In Indiana’.

Now before we start really making fun—or rather, taking a closer look at our top 10 cities, let’s just be clear: this list may be completely scientifically proven and absolutely irrefutable (hah), but, really, it’s all in good fun. These aren’t bad places to live (In fact, if you can get in, they are great places to live), so don’t get that idea.

If you’d like to see more than these top 10, feel free to head down to the bottom of the post for a look at the full list. Otherwise time to put on your monocle as we examine the snobbiest places in Indiana.

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1. Zionsville

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Source: Public domain

Population: 23,134
Median Income: $104,455
Median Home Price: $331,700

Well, well, well Zionsville, we meet again. This time however, I’m not here to let you gloat about how awesome you are. No this time, I’m here to take you down a peg.

I mean honestly, Zion, you named yourself after one of the holiest places on earth. Conceited much?

But I guess that’s what happens when you have the highest home prices, second highest median income, and third most people with college degrees in all of Indiana. And then to top it off, there are the second most galleries per capita in the Hoosier State.

So maybe, just maybe, we should consider changing the name of the city to Snobbyville.

2. Carmel

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 80,060
Median Income: $107,505
Median Home Price: $293,600

I quickly realized that this list prominently features a lot of places we praised from the best places to live in Indiana and Carmel is no exception.

It’s sugary sweet to live in Carmel, but to those outside of the city, it comes off as snotty and hoity toity.

Why is that? Because it’s the richest place in Indiana with the second highest home prices, so don’t even think about moving here unless you’re rich.

Carmel has slightly less snobby things to do, per capita, than Zionsville, which is the only reason why it didn’t top the list.

3. Avon

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 12,542
Median Income: $72,452
Median Home Price: $171,000

The third most snobby place in Indiana goes to Avon, where even the local high school marching band thinks its ‘well known throughout the country’, according to Wikipedia.

I guess that makes sense given that there are more private schools per capita than any other place in Indiana, so there’s plenty of time to march around between snobby schools.

The city also ranks as having the ninth highest median income in the Hoosier state, which is another snobby feather in its marching band cap.

4. Munster

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 23,460
Median Income: $70,708
Median Home Price: $197,600

There’s no cheesing around with this one, Munster ranks as the fourth snobbiest place in Indiana. The bed-room community where people sleep on pillows of snobbery and thinks so highly of itself that it’s part of the Chicago metro area even though it’s located in Indiana

The city has the third most private schools per capita and ninth most art galleries per capita of any place in Indiana. Throw on some high-stinkin’ home prices (fifth highest in the state)and there’s no wonder Munster smells like (stinky cheese level)snobbery.

5. Batesville

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Source: Public domain

Population: 6,727
Median Income: $62,250
Median Home Price: $184,700

Batesville may be the smallest city in the top ten, but it still packs a snobby punch as the fifth snobbiest place in Indiana.

Take for instance the 888 word diatribe on the development of the city on Wikipedia. That’s more words per capita than any other place on this list (Based on my eye test. May not actually be true, but you get the idea)

And bringing it back to the actual data, Batesville has the fifth most galleries per capita and the ninth highest home prices in Indiana — the most obvious sign of snobbishness.

6. Dyer

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 16,283
Median Income: $78,881
Median Home Price: $197,500

Dyer is the kind of place that ranks as one of the best places to live according to CNN in 2005 and still likes to brag about it. That, and the data, makes it good enough to be the sixth snobbiest place in Indiana.

The city has the eighth highest median income and sixth highest home prices in the state. It also has the sixth most private schools per capita of any place in Indiana.

And now they might realize that ‘striving higher in Dyer’ attitude is not only cheese-y, its pretty snooty too.

7. Chesterton

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 13,571
Median Income: $64,183
Median Home Price: $174,500

Chesterton takes the seventh spot on our list of the snobbiest places in Indiana. While it was once home to the ‘most famous’ Wizard of Oz Festival, the festival wised up to the snobbiness of that statement and shut down in 2013.

And now Chesterton is just known for having the fourth most galleries per capita in Indiana. So you can go around town and see different artistic renderings of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’, or whatever snobby art critics say.

8. Valparaiso

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 31,347
Median Income: $50,182
Median Home Price: $165,200

Valparaiso, the eighth snobbiest place in Indiana, is so snobby that you need a lesson just to pronounce it correctly:
(/?v??lp??re?zo?/ vahl-p?-ray-zoh)

Come on guys, take out some vowels for us more down to earth folk.

Anyways, when the town isn’t celebrating popcorn during the annual popcorn festival, it ranks as having the 12th most educated population in the state with the 13th most art galleries per capita.

9. Granger

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Source: Public Domain

Population: 29,302
Median Income: $91,124
Median Home Price: $192,700

Granger ranks as t he ninth snobbiest place in Indiana, breaking a tie with Crown Point because of its higher median income.

In fact, the median income is so high that it ranks as the fourth highest in all of Indiana. Throw on top of that the seventh highest home price and seventh most college educated people per capita, and the snobbish starts to shine through.

(Un?)fortunately for the town, there aren’t that many snobby things to do within its borders. So the town must export their snobbish elsewhere.

10. Crown Point

Snobbiest Places In Indiana

Population: 27,477
Median Income: $64,876
Median Home Price: $174,900

And rounding out the top ten snobbiest places in Indiana is Crown Point.

Unlike its name, Crown Point doesn’t actually rank as the highest point for any of our criteria. Instead, it maintains a steadily level of snobbery across all the criteria.

So while it may be the ‘Hub of Lake County’, it should really be named the ‘Snob Hub Of Lake County’.

Summing Up The Hoosier Cream Humble Pie

Well there you have it, the places in Indiana that needed a piece of humble pie, with Zionsville in particular being called out as the snobbiest place in Indiana.

And, at the very least, they can all take solace in the fact that they are not the worst places to live in Indiana.

Snobtastic Data For Indiana

Check out the data here.

City Population Snob Score Rank
Zionsville 23,134 8 1
Carmel 80,060 11.83 2
Avon 12,542 13.33 3
Munster 23,460 14.33 4
Batesville 6,727 21 5
Dyer 16,283 24 6
Chesterton 13,571 24.17 7
Valparaiso 31,347 24.5 8
Granger 29,302 26.5 9
Crown Point 27,477 26.5 10
Bargersville 5,237 27.33 11
Noblesville 52,987 27.5 12
Columbus 44,306 27.67 13
Westfield 30,081 27.67 13
Brownsburg 21,749 28.17 15
Danville 8,981 28.33 16
Lafayette 67,302 28.83 17
Jasper 14,982 28.83 17
Merrillville 35,201 29.67 19
Fishers 76,835 31.17 20
Greenwood 50,457 32.83 21
Bloomington 80,440 34.67 22
Madison 12,048 35.17 23
Warsaw 13,620 36 24
Franklin 23,857 36.33 25
West Lafayette 30,047 37.33 26
Auburn 12,760 37.5 27
Lowell 9,225 38 28
Jeffersonville 44,683 38.33 29
Yorktown 9,347 38.33 29
Lakes Of The Four Seasons 7,351 38.33 29
Angola 8,552 39.33 32
Hidden Valley 5,174 39.83 33
Griffith 16,875 40.17 34
Indianapolis 822,006 41.17 35
Bright 5,517 41.17 35
Monticello 5,384 42.17 37
Hobart 28,933 42.67 38
Greenfield 20,545 42.83 39
Fort Wayne 253,617 43 40
Nappanee 6,509 43 40
Clarksville 22,122 43.83 42
Michigan City 31,442 44.83 43
Goshen 31,569 45.83 44
Lawrence 45,779 46.5 45
Garrett 5,987 47 46
Greencastle 10,343 47.5 47
Dunlap 6,414 47.67 48
New Albany 36,450 48.33 49
Mishawaka 48,107 48.5 50
Lawrenceburg 5,023 48.83 51
Martinsville 11,890 48.83 51
Crawfordsville 15,958 49.67 53
North Manchester 6,017 49.67 53
Greensburg 11,527 49.83 55
Cedar Lake 11,484 51 56
Evansville 119,226 51.67 57
Decatur 10,062 51.67 57
Mooresville 9,383 52 59
Ellettsville 6,367 52.17 60
Cumberland 5,205 52.83 61
Kendallville 9,943 55.33 62
Beech Grove 13,949 55.33 62
Columbia City 8,503 55.5 64
Westville 5,873 55.67 65
Bluffton 9,565 55.83 66
Alexandria 5,167 56.5 67
Bedford 13,436 56.83 68
Huntingburg 5,739 57 69
Terre Haute 60,850 57.5 70
Muncie 70,033 58 71
Washington 11,552 58 71
New Haven 14,624 58.17 73
Mount Vernon 6,677 58.33 74
Hammond 80,658 58.5 75
Wabash 10,644 60 76
Tipton 5,094 60.33 77
Charlestown 7,607 61 78
Tell City 7,287 61 78
New Whiteland 5,498 61 78
La Porte 22,077 61.5 81
Kokomo 54,402 61.67 82
Elkhart 51,293 62.17 83
Linton 5,408 62.33 84
Logansport 17,855 63.17 85
Boonville 6,267 63.33 86
Brazil 7,786 63.67 87
Vincennes 18,374 63.83 88
Anderson 56,097 64 89
Huntington 17,385 66.33 90
New Castle 18,066 66.5 91
North Vernon 6,616 68.33 92
Gas City 5,918 69.33 93
Marion 30,088 72.67 94
Frankfort 16,433 72.83 95
Gary 81,153 74 96
Lake Station 12,596 75 97
East Chicago 29,789 76.33 98
Hartford City 6,207 76.67 99
Connersville 13,479 78.17 100
Elwood 8,677 80.17 101