How TownRatings grades towns

Every grade on TownRatings comes from public data, compared across the country, and turned into a letter the same way. This page explains how, once, so each town page can stay about the town.

From numbers to letters

For each subject we rank every eligible U.S. town (1,000 residents or more) on the public data behind it. A town's percentile is the share of towns it does better than. The percentile becomes a letter on one fixed scale:

Bottom 5% · then steps of 10% · top 5%. There is no F: a D− town is still a real place where people live and make it work.

Every grade on a town page also shows the town's rank within its state, because the national letter and the local picture can differ. A town in a low-crime state can be safer than most of the country and still sit in the middle of its state.

The overall grade

The overall grade blends the livability subjects: cost of living 18, safety 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs and income 12, walkability 8 and hazard risk 4. The blend is ranked again across the country, so an A means the same share of towns everywhere. A town needs 2,500 residents and at least three of cost, safety, schools and health. Residents means one figure, the same one every page shows: the Census Bureau’s newest population estimate, or for an unincorporated community, which gets no yearly estimate, the Census survey’s five-year figure. The outdoors, history and civic life are graded too, as character, but they don't count toward the overall grade: a newer suburb isn't a worse place to live for being new.

Safety

Crimes reported to the FBI by the town's own police department, pooled over the last three years, per resident. A violent crime counts four times as much as a property crime. Towns are graded only when their department reported all three years. Many towns are patrolled by a county sheriff or state police, which report for their whole area; those towns aren't graded, and their page says who polices them.

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, offenses known to law enforcement.

Schools

The public districts a town's children attend, compared with the other districts in the same state, because each state gives its own tests. Math and reading results count 60% and the graduation rate 40%, each against the state average. A town served by several districts is weighted by students tested. Small groups and results published only as wide ranges are left out.

Source: U.S. Department of Education (EDFacts), via ED Data Express: state tests from spring 2022 (the newest district results the Department has published) and the class of 2023 graduation rate; older districts fall back to spring 2021.

Health

Seven CDC estimates for adults: fair or poor health, frequent physical distress, frequent mental distress, obesity, diabetes, smoking and no exercise. On each, a town earns the share of U.S. towns doing worse; the shares are averaged and ranked again. The grade is not adjusted for income, and wealthier towns are usually healthier, so each page also compares the town with towns of similar income.

Source: CDC PLACES. These are modeled estimates: CDC applies national survey answers to each area's population. Small towns and ZIP-based towns can share or blur estimates; their pages say so.

Cost of living

What a typical home, rent and the property-tax bill cost against what households in the area earn, plus the share of renters paying 30% or more of income on housing. Area income is used, not the town's own, so a wealthy town isn't graded as cheap just because its residents earn a lot.

Sources: Census American Community Survey; Zillow Home Value Index for current prices.

Jobs and income

Four measures: median household income; the share of residents below the poverty line; the unemployment rate; and how many jobs are within a reasonable drive. In college towns, where students are 15% or more of residents, poverty is counted without off-campus college students, whose low incomes are usually temporary. Unemployment is used where at least 1,000 residents are in the labor force, so a small sample can't read zero.

Sources: Census American Community Survey (5-year estimates); EPA Smart Location Database (job access by car, compared across towns rather than printed as a count).

Walkability

Two measures together: the EPA's National Walkability Index (street layout, transit access, homes and jobs close together), weighted by where residents live, and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit. Households without a car and transit service are shown on each page but not graded: a household can be without a car because it can't afford one, and the national transit schedules have gaps that would mark some towns down for stops they do have.

Sources: EPA Smart Location Database; Census American Community Survey.

Hazard risk

FEMA's estimate of expected yearly damage to buildings from 18 natural hazards (floods, storms, wildfire, earthquakes and more), as a share of the buildings' value, for the neighborhoods where the town's residents live. Compared nationally; lower risk grades higher. FEMA's social-vulnerability and resilience scores are shown on each page but not graded: a house doesn't flood more because its neighbors earn less.

Source: FEMA National Risk Index (v1.20), census tracts.

Outdoors, history and civic life

These three describe a town's character. Each has a grade on its own page, and the town's summary describes them, but none of them counts toward the overall grade: a newer suburb isn't a worse place to live for being new, and a city isn't worse for having fewer trails than a mountain town.

Outdoors: four measures, compared nationally: the share of the town's land that is conserved, miles of trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents, and the share of residents within a 10-minute walk (half a mile) of a park. Mapping of parks and trails varies from place to place, so a town with almost nothing mapped grades low, and its page says that coverage may be the reason.

History: three things about the town itself. How long it has been settled, read in eras (colonial, before 1850, before 1900, the 20th century) rather than exact years, since founding dates are often uncertain. The share of homes built before 1940. And its places on the National Register of Historic Places: per resident compared with other towns in the same state, because states nominate places at very different rates, and in total compared nationally. Dates that belong to something else (a colonial fort, or a recent incorporation of an older place) are set aside.

Civic life: library visits per resident (for a town's own library, using only figures the library reported); registered community nonprofits per 1,000 residents (congregations and national groups left out); and the share of adults aged 25 to 44 in volunteering or activism groups. It counts formal organizations and online groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors. Unincorporated places aren't graded on it, because their nonprofits are registered under a neighboring city's mailing address.

Sources: IMLS Public Libraries Survey; IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File; Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022.

All three are graded as character, and all three are left out of the overall grade.

Colleges

College pages are described, not graded. A town's Colleges page lists the colleges within 15 miles (or the nearest one when none is that close), and each college has a page with its size, price, graduation rate and graduates' earnings as the Department of Education publishes them. There is no college letter, and colleges don't count toward any of the town's grades.

Where college students are 15% or more of residents, the town carries a College town label, never a letter. Students change some of the numbers, so two grades adjust: in college towns, Jobs and income counts poverty without off-campus college students, leaves unemployment out (students looking for part-time work count as unemployed) and uses family income where household income is pulled down by student households; where students are a quarter or more of residents, Cost of living leaves out the share of households paying 30% or more of income on housing. Campuses, where half or more of residents are students, keep their grades but stay off the overall state rank and the best-places lists.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and IPEDS; Census American Community Survey (students, poverty without students).

Climate

Climate pages are described, not graded: weather isn’t better or worse, only a matter of taste. Each page compares the town’s 30-year normals (January nights, July afternoons, rain, snow, hot and freezing days) with its state and the U.S., and the climate lists rank towns on one measure at a time.

Sources: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020 (gridded and station normals); USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, 2023.

What the grades can't tell you

• Official data, as published. We use official figures as their agencies publish them and say where each one comes from. When a figure looks unusual, such as a crime count that halves or doubles in a year, the town's page notes it. The grade stands.
• How sure we are depends on the town. Small towns have small samples, so their grades can move with a few reports or survey answers. Their pages show the likely range, and a letter that could reasonably be a step higher or lower shows with "≈".
• An average isn't a street. A city's grade averages neighborhoods that can differ more than whole towns do. Big cities link to their neighborhoods.
• Grades refresh when the data does, and each change is dated on the town's page.