Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Dalton's standout: it has 27 miles of trail and 52% conserved land. Overall it grades B, 173rd of 282 graded towns in Massachusetts. Crime is low: it reports less per resident than 79% of U.S. towns and it is healthier than 76% of U.S. towns. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 98% of U.S. towns, with 7 places on the National Register. 52% of the land in Dalton is conserved, above both the Massachusetts town median (19%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). Only 22 of Massachusetts’ 325 towns score lower on hazard risk. Chalet Wildlife Management Area, at 3,266 acres with 7.3 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
Where Dalton beats most towns.
Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 554 in 1790, 6,330 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1885 and 7 maps from 1886 on.
7 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Dalton is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Dalton. Close and well known come first.
11 mi MountainMount Greylock
39 mi National Historic SiteSpringfield Armory National Historic Site14K visitors a year
12 mi TheatreTanglewood
16 mi MuseumNorman Rockwell Museum
16 mi MuseumClark Art Institute
39 mi MuseumOlana State Historic SiteMount Greylock: Jstergis, CC BY 3.0 · Springfield Armory National Historic Site: National Park Service, Public domain · Tanglewood: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Norman Rockwell Museum: User:Rmrfstar, CC BY 2.5 · Clark Art Institute: Daderot, Public domain · Olana State Historic Site: Netniks, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Dalton, 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 Dalton.
Dalton keeps more of its land conserved than most of Massachusetts and is safe by national standards but not by Massachusetts’s; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Massachusetts (mostly inland flooding).
Its 7,231 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in any other Massachusetts town.
27 miles of trail in 11 parks and preserves. Dalton’s trail density is 1.3 miles per square mile, below Massachusetts’ towns (1.8) but above U.S. towns (0.4).
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Appalachian Trail Corridor | 10.6 mi | 1,471 |
| 2. Chalet Wildlife Management Area | 7.3 mi | 3,266 |
| 3. The Boulders | 1.9 mi | 80 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Central Berkshire school district. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Wahconah Regional High, with 450 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| CranevilleLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 458 | C+ |
| Wahconah Regional HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 450 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
The median rent in Dalton is $872 a month. The typical Dalton home is worth about $348,000, up 1.8% in a year, 47% below the Massachusetts typical home.
| Dalton | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $872 a month | $1,683 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 71% | 79% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 8.6 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 65% of Massachusetts’s graded towns.
Dalton’s property crime rate is 1.1 per 1,000 residents.
| Dalton | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.1 per 1,000 residents | 4.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.8 per 1,000 residents | 1.4 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Within Massachusetts it is less healthy than 73% of the 279 graded towns: Massachusetts sets a high bar. Its widest gap with Massachusetts is tooth loss: 7.6% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 11.9% statewide.
Dalton beats the Massachusetts average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 31% of adults have obesity in Dalton.
| Dalton | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 28% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 24% | 23% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 19% | 25% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 82% | 79% |
| What stands out | Dalton | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.6% | 11.9% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.6% | 11.1% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.9% | 8.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The average commute for its 2,854 working residents takes 22.2 minutes, against 29.1 across Massachusetts.
Most working residents leave Dalton for work: only 14% work in town. Jobs based in Dalton fell to 1,691 in 2023, 249 fewer than in 2013. The top destinations are Pittsfield (42%), Lenox (5%) and Lee (3%).
| Dalton | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $79,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 14% | 9.8% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 7.4% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
28% of Dalton residents are 65 or older. Dalton has lost 2.8% of its people since 2020, down to 6,157 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 44% of Dalton adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Dalton | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 28% | 19% | 18% |
| Median age | 49.7 years | 43.4 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 44% | 47% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 21% | 20% | 22% |
55% women, 45% men
About 83 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±3.1 points). Across Massachusetts, 51.1% of residents are women.
| Dalton | MA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.9% | 10.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.7% | 9.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 3.9% | 9.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.1% | 14% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 10% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.4% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15.2% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 15.8% | 10.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 12.1% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3% | 8.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30.2% | 22.6% | 26% |
| Some college | 16.3% | 14.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6.2% | 7.5% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 22.4% | 25.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 21.9% | 21.8% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Dalton has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 80°, January nights drop to 13° and about 77 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 95% of Massachusetts towns, with expected losses of about $436 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1980, 10 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Dalton.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
2 within 15 miles of the center of Dalton
About 2 of every 100 Dalton residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Massachusetts.
52% of the town is conserved land, across 11 parks and preserves.
7 places in Dalton on the National Register of Historic Places.
9 notable people were born in Dalton.
Town in Massachusetts, United States
Dalton is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Dalton is a transition town between the urban and rural portions of Berkshire County. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,330 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Dalton.
| Town | MA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalton | #173 | B | C+ | A− | B− | A− |
| Pittsfield | #265 | D | C− | C− | C− | B |
| Hinsdale | — | — | B− | — | B− | B |
| Windsor | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Washington | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cheshire | #196 | B− | C | A+ | C− | B+ |
Hinsdale has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Hinsdale reports no FBI crime data of its own. Windsor and Washington aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Dalton with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Dalton grades B overall, better than 59% of U.S. towns and #173 of 282 in Massachusetts. It grades A− for health, A− for safety and B− for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.
9 notable people were born here, including Winthrop M. Crane and Byron Weston.
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