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 violent crime rate 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 its D, Chelmsford highest at B+.
Its public schools are run by the Lowell school district. Two of its 35 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| 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.
The property crime rate in Lowell is 13.8 per 1,000 residents. Lowell reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 81% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Most working residents leave Lowell for work: only 19% work in town. 17% of Lowell residents live below the poverty line. Jobs based in Lowell grew to 35,504 in 2023, 1,923 more than in 2013.
| 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
19 miles of trail in 52 parks and preserves. Lowell’s trail density is 1.3 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Lowell Dracut Tyngsborough State Forest, 328 acres with 4.3 miles of trail.
| 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.
The typical Lowell home is worth about $482,000, up 1.1% in a year, 27% below the Massachusetts typical home. 43% of households own their home in Lowell.
| 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
Lowell has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 16° and about 59 inches of snow falls in 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+).
Lowell beats the Massachusetts average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 17. 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.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 52% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 195 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Lowell.
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.
