Centerville is centrally located between the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers and situated between the shores of Centerville and Peltier Lakes and is about 20 minutes to downtown St. Paul. Although Centerville is now only 2.5 square miles, it has 1,597 acres, 189 of which are lakes. Centerville is a well-planned and laid-out small community. It has many trails going through its neighborhoods and around the lakes with the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Regional Park situated next door. Centerville has some open lots waiting for new homes to be built.

Centerville is served by Centennial School District which was ranked as having better schools than 90% of the country, and 95% of the rest of the state in 2011. Centennial School District has four early childhood schools, five elementary schools (grades K-5), one middle school (grades 6-8), and one high school (grades 9-12). The district’s high school graduation rate of 96.4% is at the top of the Minnesota’s rankings.