Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Cortez earns a D, ranked 150th of 158 in Colorado, mostly because of safety and schools. Its crime rate is higher than 91% of U.S. towns, with 53 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Its schools rank behind 89% of the state's. One bright spot: natural-hazard risk is low. 48% of working residents work locally in Cortez, where Colorado’s towns sit at 7.5% and U.S. towns at 8%. Cortez has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Mesa Verde Administrative District and Mesa Verde National Park. Cortez is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns.
Where Cortez beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Colorado), ordered by how far Cortez is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for hazard risk (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for safety (better than 9%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 332 in 1890, a low of 125 in 1900, 8,766 in 2020. The archive holds 24 old photos and papers going back to 1909 and a map from 1965 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Cortez. Close and well known come first.
Big draw5 mi National ParkMesa Verde National Park463K visitors a year
14 mi Ancient siteCliff Palace
35 mi LandmarkFour Corners Monument
9 mi National MonumentHovenweep National Monument27K visitors a year
39 mi Scenic railwayDurango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
23 mi Park & preserveCanyons of the Ancients National MonumentMesa Verde National Park: Elaine from Sheffield, England, CC BY 2.0 · Cliff Palace: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Four Corners Monument: Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hovenweep National Monument: teofilo, CC BY 2.0 · Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad: pixelFire, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Canyons of the Ancients National Monument: Bureau of Land Management, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Cortez, 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 Cortez.
Cortez carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of Colorado (mostly inland flooding), fares better on crime within Colorado than nationally and is healthier than towns with similar incomes.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 99% of Colorado towns, with expected losses of about $72 per resident a year; that rating is what its A+ for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Cortez is 2 of 100. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Cortez since 2006.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its public schools are run by the Montezuma-Cortez School District No. Re-1. The largest public high school is Montezuma-Cortez High School, with 598 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montezuma-Cortez Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 505 | C− |
| Montezuma-Cortez High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 598 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CO on state tests and graduation
At 51.5 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 77% of Colorado’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 390 to 246 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Cortez’s violent crime rate is 5.7 per 1,000 residents. Cortez reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 91% report less. Cortez’s property crime rate is 20.9 per 1,000 residents.
| Cortez | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.7 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 20.9 per 1,000 residents | 15.2 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
12 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves. Hawkins Preserve, at 143 acres with 1.5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Carpenter Natural Area | 2.4 mi | 135 |
| 2. Parque de Vida | 2.3 mi | 62 |
| 3. Hawkins Preserve | 1.5 mi | 143 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The median property tax bill is $701, against $2,602 across Colorado, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Cortez home is worth about $339,000, up 0.9% in a year, 36% below the Colorado typical home. Only 9 of the 151 Colorado towns we compare have a lower median rent than Cortez. 66% of households own their home in Cortez.
| Cortez | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $984 a month | $1,812 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 66% | 71% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Cortez has cold, snowy winters and warm summers, with very little rain. July afternoons reach 91°, January nights drop to 15° and about 33 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The average commute for its 3,817 working residents takes 15.1 minutes, against 25.2 across Colorado.
15% of Cortez residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Durango (6%), Towaoc (3%) and Grand Junction (2%). 6.7% of Cortez workers work from home.
| Cortez | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 15 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 6.7% | 18% | 11% |
| Median household income | $54,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 15% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Against the 7,198 U.S. towns with household incomes like Cortez’s, it is healthier than 91%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income. Within Colorado it is less healthy than 80% of the 159 graded towns: Colorado sets a high bar.
Cortez beats the Colorado average on 2 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 13.
| Cortez | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 12% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 72% | 71% | 79% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 30% | 36% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 18% | 16% |
| What stands out | Cortez | CO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 15.6% | 19% |
| More adults treating high blood pressure | 73.6% | 69.5% |
| More adults with COPD | 7.7% | 5.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
None within 15 miles of Cortez; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Cortez residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Colorado.
3 places in Cortez on the National Register of Historic Places.
6 notable people were born in Cortez.
City in Colorado, United States
Cortez is a home-rule municipality that is the county seat of and the most populous municipality in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The city's population was 8,766 at the 2020 United States census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Cortez grades D overall, better than 13% of U.S. towns and #150 of 158 in Colorado. It grades B for health, D for safety and D for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 5.2 years of the area's median household income ($65,244 across the county). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
6 notable people were born here, including Chuck Nevitt and Eli Tomac.
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