Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 1,915, settled in 1814. 21% more nonprofits per person than the typical Connecticut town.
Trash day: MondayThe best of Franklin’s subject grades are an A− for civic life and the outdoors. No town in Connecticut scores higher than Franklin on cost of living. 27% of the land in Franklin is conserved, against 14% in Connecticut’s towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Franklin Swamp Wildlife Management Area, at 694 acres. Franklin has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Franklin beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Connecticut), ordered by how far Franklin is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1835.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Franklin. Close and well known come first.
Big draw33 mi LakeLake Chaubunagungamaug
9 mi Stadium & arenaMohegan Sun Arena
29 mi Stadium & arenaPeoplesBank Arena
26 mi Stadium & arenaPratt & Whitney Stadium
20 mi State parkGillette Castle State Park
38 mi Theme parkSix Flags New EnglandLake Chaubunagungamaug: Bree from Worcester, MA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mohegan Sun Arena: Bbjeter, CC BY-SA 3.0 · PeoplesBank Arena: PeoplesBank Arena, CC BY 2.5 · Pratt & Whitney Stadium: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0 · Gillette Castle State Park: Original uploader was Kevinpepin at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Six Flags New England: Canadaolympic989, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Franklin, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 30, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Franklin.
20 miles of trail in 10 parks and preserves. Franklin’s trail density is 1.0 miles per square mile, where Connecticut’s towns sit at 1.3 and U.S. towns at 0.4.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sprague Land Preserve (Watson Section) | 3.1 mi | 139 |
| 2. Ayers Gap Preserve | 1.9 mi | 82 |
| 3. Franklin Swamp Wildlife Management Area | — | 694 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Franklin School District. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 185 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CT on state tests
Franklin beats the Connecticut average on 6 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 37% of adults have high blood pressure in Franklin.
| Franklin | Connecticut towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 35% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 81% | 79% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 9.7% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 30% | 35% |
| What stands out | Franklin | CT |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.7% | 10% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10% | 14.9% |
| More adults with arthritis | 29.9% | 24.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Franklin has chilly winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 19° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave Franklin for work: only 7% work in town. Jobs based in Franklin grew to 1,267 in 2023, 320 more than in 2013. 6.8% of Franklin workers work from home.
| Franklin | Connecticut towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 6.8% | 16% | 11% |
| Median household income | $105,000 | $109,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 6.7% | 11% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 57% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 7 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Franklin.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Franklin home is worth about $419,000, up 7.3% in a year, 6% below the Connecticut typical home.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
2 within 15 miles of the center of Franklin
About 4 of every 100 Franklin residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Connecticut.
4 notable people were born in Franklin.
Town in Connecticut, United States
Franklin is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 1,863 at the 2020 census. The town includes the village of North Franklin.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Franklin.
| Town | CT rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | — | — | B+ | — | B | A− |
| Norwich | #145 | D | D | B− | D | C+ |
| Sprague | #131 | C− | C+ | — | D | B |
| Lebanon | #98 | B− | C− | — | B | A− |
| Bozrah | — | — | C+ | — | C− | A− |
| Windham | #141 | D | C+ | — | D | C |
| Scotland | — | — | B− | — | C | B+ |
Franklin, Bozrah and Scotland have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Franklin, Sprague, Lebanon, Bozrah, Windham and Scotland report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Franklin with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
21% more nonprofits per person than the typical Connecticut town.
Not for the area. That is 4.8 years of the area's median household income ($86,586 across the Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
4 notable people were born here, including Uriah Tracy and Lafayette S. Foster.
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