Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Trash day: look up yoursFor most people who can afford it, yes. Braintree Town grades B+ overall, 134th of 282 graded towns in Massachusetts. It has 20 miles of trail. It is healthier than 91% of U.S. towns and the median household earns $122K. The trade-off is money: the typical home is worth about $730K, 6.3 years of the Boston metro’s $116K median household income. Braintree Town is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns. 22% of the land in Braintree Town is conserved, where Massachusetts’ towns sit at 19% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Only 31 of Massachusetts’ 325 towns score lower on hazard risk.
Where Braintree Town beats most towns.
Census counts: 2,771 in 1790, a low of 1,285 in 1800, 39,143 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1859 and 4 maps from 1936 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Braintree Town takes its name from Braintree in Essex, England, 3,300 miles across the Atlantic.
UKUK editionBraintree Town, settled in 1634, takes its name from Braintree, a large town in Essex, England.
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Braintree Town is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 97% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 13%), so the B+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Braintree Town. Close and well known come first.
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaFenway Park
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaGillette Stadium
Big draw10 mi MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum
11 mi AttractionFreedom Trail
10 mi MuseumMuseum of Fine Arts Boston477K visitors a year
11 mi GardenBoston CommonFenway Park: Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gillette Stadium: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Sean Dungan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Freedom Trail: Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Martin~jawiki at Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Boston Common: Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Braintree Town, 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 Braintree Town.
Braintree Town is safe by national standards but not by Massachusetts’s and is healthy by national standards but mid-pack in Massachusetts; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Massachusetts (mostly inland flooding).
Within Massachusetts it is healthier than 65% of the 279 graded towns: Massachusetts sets a high bar.
24% of adults have obesity in Braintree Town, against 28% in Massachusetts’ towns and 35% across U.S. towns. 15% of adults report frequent mental distress in Braintree Town. Braintree Town beats the Massachusetts average on 11 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0.
| Braintree Town | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 28% | 35% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 11% | 14% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 12% | 14% |
| What stands out | Braintree Town | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4% | 5.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.6% | 11.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its B+ is the best School Grade on its borders; Quincy (B−) is next.
Its public schools are run by the Braintree school district. Three of its 17 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 999 | B |
| Braintree HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,694 | A |
| Mary E Flaherty SchoolTop results in townGrades K–4 | Grades K–4 | 290 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
21 miles of trail in 32 parks and preserves. Braintree Town’s trail density is 1.4 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Pond Meadow Park, 304 acres with 2.8 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Devon Wood Open Space | 4.8 mi | 295 |
| 2. Cranberry Pond Conservation Land | 3.2 mi | 148 |
| 3. Pond Meadow Park | 2.8 mi | 304 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Braintree Town has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 20° and about 51 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 24.6 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 86% of Massachusetts’s graded towns.
The property crime rate in Braintree Town is 14.3 per 1,000 residents.
| Braintree Town | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 14.3 per 1,000 residents | 4.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.6 per 1,000 residents | 1.4 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Most working residents leave Braintree Town for work: only 12% work in town. The top destinations are Boston (30%), Quincy (8%) and Weymouth Town (4%). Half commute less than 10 miles.
| Braintree Town | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $122,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 18% | 18% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 5.9% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 93% of Massachusetts towns, with expected losses of about $351 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1978, 136 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Braintree Town.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Braintree Town home is worth about $730,000, up 3% in a year, 11% above the Massachusetts typical home.
| Braintree Town | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,024 a month | $1,682 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 78% | 79% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Massachusetts average. 48% of Braintree Town adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Braintree Town | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 48% | 47% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| Median age | 41.3 years | 43.4 years | 40.5 years |
| Under 18 | 21% | 20% | 22% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.3 points. Across Massachusetts, 51.1% of residents are women. Median age: women 43.1, men 39.7.
| Braintree Town | MA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.5% | 10.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10% | 9.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8% | 9.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.3% | 14% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.1% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.9% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.5% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.4% | 10.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.2% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7.1% | 8.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23.3% | 22.6% | 26% |
| Some college | 15.1% | 14.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7% | 7.5% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 28.4% | 25.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 19.1% | 21.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
42 within 15 miles of the center of Braintree Town
About 7 of every 100 Braintree Town residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Massachusetts.
3 places in Braintree Town on the National Register of Historic Places.
24 notable people were born in Braintree Town.
City in Massachusetts, United States
Braintree (US: ), officially the Town of Braintree, is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is officially known as a town, but Braintree is a city with a mayor–council form of government, and it is considered a city under Massachusetts law. The population was 39,143 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Boston area, with access to the MBTA Red Line, and is a member of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's South Shore Coalition. The first mayor of Braintree was Joe Sullivan, who served until January 2020. The current mayor of Braintree is Erin Joyce, who was elected in 2023, defeating incumbent Charles Kokoros.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Braintree Town.
It grades higher overall than all 4 graded towns on its borders; Holbrook (B) comes closest. Holbrook next door grades lower for schools (C+ to Braintree Town’s B+) and higher for cost of living (C to D).
| Town | MA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braintree Town | #134 | B+ | D | C+ | B+ | A |
| Randolph Town | #239 | C | D | B− | C− | B+ |
| Quincy | #211 | B− | D | C+ | B− | A |
| Weymouth Town | #186 | B− | D | B− | C | A |
| Holbrook | #165 | B | C | C+ | C+ | A− |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Braintree Town grades B+ overall, better than 67% of U.S. towns and #134 of 282 in Massachusetts. It grades A for health, C+ for safety and B+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Massachusetts has less crime than most states, so among its own towns Braintree Town sits nearer the middle.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
24 notable people were born here, including John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
