Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Lowell grades D overall, 260th among Massachusetts's 282 graded towns, mostly because of schools and safety. Its schools rank behind 91% of the state's. It reports more crime per resident than 81% of U.S. towns, including 612 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. One bright spot: it is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 99% of U.S. towns, with 42 places on the National Register. Its National Register listings include Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District and Lowell Historic Preservation District. Lowell’s level of violent crime is 5 per 1,000 residents, against 1.4 in Massachusetts’ towns and 1.6 across U.S. towns. On civic life, just 11 of Massachusetts’ 325 towns do worse.
Where Lowell beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Rogers STEM Academy | K–8 | 892 |
| Lowell Community Charter Public School | PK–8 | 816 |
| S Christa McAuliffe Elementary | PK–4 | 501 |
Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 6,474 in 1830, 115,554 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1836 and 8 maps from 1886 on.
42 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Lowell is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Lowell. Close and well known come first.
Big draw23 mi Stadium & arenaFenway Park
Big draw38 mi Stadium & arenaGillette Stadium
Big draw24 mi MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum
14 mi LakeWalden Pond
24 mi AttractionFreedom Trail
21 mi Stadium & arenaHarvard StadiumFenway 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 · Walden Pond: Victorgrigas, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Freedom Trail: Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Harvard Stadium: Nick Allen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Lowell, 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 Lowell.
Lowell costs less than Dracut or any other town next door and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Massachusetts; it also reports more crime than Tewksbury and its other graded neighbors.
Each of its 4 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than that grade, Chelmsford highest at B+.
The public schools here belong to the Lowell school district. Of its 35 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. The 6 public schools in Lowell teach 3,683 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogers STEM AcademyLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 892 | D |
| Lowell HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 3,446 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
Each of the 3 graded towns on its borders reports less crime per resident, from Tewksbury (B−) to Dracut (B+). At 36.3 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 95% of Massachusetts’s graded towns.
Lowell’s level of property crime stands at 13.8 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Lowell: just over one in ten workers work from home. Just nearly a fifth of the town’s working residents have a job in town. Also worth knowing: its typical household income stands at $79,000. Jobs in Lowell grew by 1,923 from 2013 to 2023, reaching 35,504.
| Lowell | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 19% | 9.8% | 8% |
| Median household income | $79,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 11% | 18% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The biggest place to walk is Lowell Dracut Tyngsborough State Forest, 328 acres with 4.3 miles of trail. Walkers can cover 19 miles of trail in 52 parks and preserves. Its trail density is 1.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lowell Dracut Tyngsborough State Forest | 4.3 mi | 328 |
| 2. Lowell National Historical Park | 1.6 mi | 114 |
| 3. Shedd Park | 1.1 mi | 52 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its typical home is the least expensive on its borders; Dracut is next at $570K.
Homes sold in Lowell spent a median 21 days on the market. The share of households in Lowell who own their home: 43%. The midpoint rent for Lowell comes to $1,625 a month.
| Lowell | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 43% | 79% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,625 a month | $1,683 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Expect July afternoons of 84° and January nights of 16°, with about 59 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Within Massachusetts it is less healthy than 87% of the 279 graded towns: Massachusetts sets a high bar. All 4 graded neighbors score healthier than its B, from Dracut (A−) to Chelmsford (A+).
27% of adults have obesity in Lowell. This Massachusetts town does better than the Massachusetts average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 17. Among adults locally, 21% worry about having enough food and 28% get no exercise outside work. Only 6 of the 279 Massachusetts towns we compare have a higher share of adults who feel lonely than Lowell.
| Lowell | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 33% | 33% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 9.1% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 19% | 25% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 16% | 17% |
| What stands out | Lowell | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.9% | 8.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 22% | 25.4% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 21.1% | 12.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
195 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 26 properties have flooded more than once.
Of the losses FEMA expects in Lowell, 75% come from inland flooding and 7% from hurricanes. Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 52% of U.S. communities. Flood insurance has paid out on 195 claims locally since 1978.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
8 within 15 miles of the center of Lowell
About 10 of every 100 Lowell residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Massachusetts.
42 places in Lowell on the National Register of Historic Places.
33 notable people were born in Lowell.
City in Massachusetts, United States
Lowell ( ) is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, it is one of the two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of the last census, and the third most populous in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The city is also part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area, called Greater Lowell, and of New England's Merrimack Valley region. Incorporated in 1826 to serve as a mill town, Lowell was named after Francis Cabot Lowell, a local figure in the Industrial Revolution. The city became known as the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution because of its texti…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Lowell.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its D; Tyngsborough (C+) is closest. Chelmsford next door grades higher for schools (B+ to Lowell’s D) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | MA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowell | #260 | D | C | C− | D | B |
| Chelmsford | #98 | A− | D | B | B+ | A+ |
| Tewksbury | #157 | B | D | B− | B | A |
| Tyngsborough | #220 | C+ | D | — | C+ | A |
| Dracut | #170 | B | C− | B+ | C | A− |
Tyngsborough reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Lowell with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Lowell grades D overall, better than 13% of U.S. towns and #260 of 282 in Massachusetts. It grades B for health, C− for safety and D for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 4.2 years of the area's median household income ($115,863 across the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH 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 C.
33 notable people were born here, including Bette Davis and Jack Kerouac.
