Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Pittsfield grades D overall, ranked 265th of 282 in Massachusetts, mostly because of schools and safety. Its public schools trail 82% of Massachusetts towns on state tests and graduation. It reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns, including 247 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. One bright spot: it has 75 miles of trail and 26% conserved land. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 96% of U.S. towns, with 24 places on the National Register. 52% of working residents work locally in Pittsfield, where Massachusetts’ towns sit at 9.8% and U.S. towns at 8%. Only 11 of Massachusetts’ 325 towns score lower on incomes. Its National Register listings include Herman Melville House and Hancock Shaker Village.
Where Pittsfield beats most towns.
Herman Melville House is one of 2 National Historic Landmarks here, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 1,992 in 1790, 43,927 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1788 and 7 maps from 1886 on.
24 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Pittsfield is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Pittsfield. Close and well known come first.
14 mi MountainMount Greylock
8 mi TheatreTanglewood
12 mi MuseumNorman Rockwell Museum
18 mi MuseumClark Art Institute
in town MuseumArrowhead
33 mi MuseumOlana State Historic SiteMount Greylock: Jstergis, CC BY 3.0 · Tanglewood: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Norman Rockwell Museum: User:Rmrfstar, CC BY 2.5 · Clark Art Institute: Daderot, Public domain · Arrowhead: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Olana State Historic Site: Netniks, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Pittsfield, 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 Pittsfield.
Pittsfield is safe by national standards but not by Massachusetts’s and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Massachusetts; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Massachusetts (mostly inland flooding).
Its typical home is the least expensive on its borders; Dalton is next at $348K.
The typical Pittsfield home is worth about $308,000, up 1% in a year, 53% below the Massachusetts typical home. 63% of households own their home in Pittsfield.
| Pittsfield | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 63% | 79% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,134 a month | $1,683 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 53% | 52% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by the Pittsfield school district. Two of its 15 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theodore Herberg MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 587 | C− |
| Taconic HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 824 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
75 miles of trail in 40 parks and preserves. The trail density in Pittsfield is 1.8 miles per square mile. Pittsfield State Forest, at 1,550 acres with 24.4 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pittsfield State Forest | 24.4 mi | 1,550 |
| 2. The Boulders | 6.8 mi | 504 |
| 3. Springside Park | 4.6 mi | 234 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
At 34.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 95% of Massachusetts’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 837 to 653 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Pittsfield’s violent crime rate is 5.8 per 1,000 residents. Pittsfield reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 79% report less.
| Pittsfield | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.8 per 1,000 residents | 1.4 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 9.5 per 1,000 residents | 4.9 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Pittsfield has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 81°, January nights drop to 14° 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 $379 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on. 75 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 11 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 75 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Pittsfield.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The average commute for its 19,334 working residents takes 18.5 minutes, against 29.1 across Massachusetts.
15% of Pittsfield residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Lenox (6%), Lee (3%) and Dalton (3%). 10% of Pittsfield workers work from home.
| Pittsfield | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 15% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $71,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 10% | 18% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Within Massachusetts it is less healthy than 89% of the 279 graded towns: Massachusetts sets a high bar.
Pittsfield beats the Massachusetts average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 12.
| Pittsfield | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 16% | 17% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 12% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 28% | 35% |
| What stands out | Pittsfield | MA |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 8% | 5.9% |
| More adults with heart disease | 7.5% | 5.8% |
| More smokers | 14.4% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
1 within 15 miles of the center of Pittsfield
About 6 of every 100 Pittsfield residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Massachusetts.
24 places in Pittsfield on the National Register of Historic Places.
52 notable people were born in Pittsfield.
City in Massachusetts, United States
Pittsfield is the most populous city in and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Berkshire County. Pittsfield's population was 43,927 at the 2020 census. Although its population has declined in recent decades, Pittsfield remains the third-largest municipality in Western Massachusetts, behind only Springfield and Chicopee. In 2017, the Arts Vibrancy Index compiled by the National Center for Arts Research ranked Pittsfield and Berkshire County as the number-one medium-sized community in the nation for the arts.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Pittsfield.
| Town | MA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsfield | #265 | D | C− | C− | C− | B |
| Dalton | #173 | B | C+ | A− | B− | A− |
| Hancock | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Lanesborough | #127 | B+ | C | — | A− | B+ |
| Washington | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Lanesborough reports no FBI crime data of its own. Hancock and Washington aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Pittsfield with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Pittsfield grades D overall, better than 9% of U.S. towns and #265 of 282 in Massachusetts. It grades B for health, C− for safety and C− for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. That is 4.1 years of the area's median household income ($76,013 across the Pittsfield, MA 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−.
52 notable people were born here, including Elizabeth Banks and William Miller.
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