Boston, the state capital · Photo: Ian Howard · CC BY 2.5How Massachusetts stacks up
Massachusetts tops the country on schools: 42% of its 4th and 8th graders score Proficient or better. All told, Massachusetts grades B+, 16th of 51 with a score of 70.
Each subject puts the official state figure beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
14th of 51B+74/100 Safe overall, with a sharp divide. Violent crime runs at 301 per 100,000 residents, 9% below the national figure (26th lowest among the states). Its towns run the full range: Clinton and Holliston rank near the top of the country, Boston and Springfield near the bottom.
Add property crime, weighted as our town grades weigh it, and it ranks 16th lowest.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, state estimate 2025.
Measure: reported crime per resident over the engine’s three crime years (property + 4 × violent), as in our Safety grades. 182 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 3,410 nationally.
Safe towns and high-crime cities in one state
Few states pair towns this safe with cities like these; New Hampshire and Rhode Island manage almost none of the latter. At the safe end sit Scituate (#47), Sharon (#56) and Northborough (#64) in the national ranking of towns of 10,000+. The quarter reporting the most crime per resident takes in Cambridge, Lowell and Brockton.
| State | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | 42% | 0% | |
| Rhode Island | 37% | 0% | |
| New Jersey | 35% | 20% | |
| Pennsylvania | 29% | 37% | |
| Maine | 29% | 15% | |
| Massachusetts | 29% | 24% |
A few towns sit out
Town figures come from each police department’s own reports to the FBI, and a town needs enough of the last three years reported to count. That covers 96% of the people in Massachusetts’s towns of 10,000+. Worcester and Norwell have too few years reported to count. Tyngsborough reports no crime of its own, usually a sign that county or state police patrol it. Among its neighbors, New Hampshire counts the most (96%) and New York the least (73%).
Schools
2nd of 51A+98/100 Strong schools overall, unusually split. From Lexington to Boston, its towns sit at both ends of the national ranking. Massachusetts tops the country on this measure: 42% of its 4th and 8th graders score Proficient or better. No state puts more of its people in the nation’s strongest-school quarter of towns (39%).
On-time graduation, 89.2% (10th highest), weighs equally with test results in the grade.
It spends $26,530 per pupil, 4th highest (context only; spending isn’t graded).
Source: NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024, public schools; EDFacts graduation rates; Census school finance.
Measure: graduation rate and test results, averaged; each district’s state-test proficiency is put on the NAEP yardstick (its result ÷ the state average × the state’s NAEP proficiency) so districts compare across states. 185 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,230 nationally.
Cost of living
48th of 51D6/100 Cost is the price of living here. Massachusetts homeowners pay a typical $5,992 a year in property tax (5th highest). Few residents live in a top-quarter town; its best showing is Athol, #1,013 nationally.
A typical home costs 5.4 years of median household income, 8th highest.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: our cost-of-living score: home value, rent and tax bill against area income, plus the share paying 30%+ for housing. 185 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Health
8th of 51A86/100 Healthier than most states. Compared with 19% nationally, 16% of adults here report fair or poor health. Sudbury leads its towns at #23 nationally; 41% of residents live in top-quarter towns.
Source: CDC PLACES 2025 release (BRFSS model estimates).
Measure: our health score: seven CDC PLACES measures (general, physical and mental health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, inactivity). 181 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,218 nationally.
Housing
26th of 51B−50/100 Owner-heavy towns, fewer owners statewide. About 6 in 10 homes are lived in by their owners (5th lowest). Boston and Worcester weigh on the town measure; 43% of residents live in bottom-quarter places. Its larger towns rank higher than the statewide figure suggests.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: share of occupied homes that are owner-occupied. 185 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Natural hazards
8th of 51A86/100 Low risk nearly everywhere. Its larger towns score well almost across the board, from Marlborough to Hopkinton. Inland flooding drives 72% of the $91 a year FEMA expects natural hazards to cost per $100,000 of buildings (9th lowest). FEMA puts 72% of the expected losses on inland flooding.
The federal government declared five major disasters here between 2015 and 2025 (10th fewest).
What drives it: inland flooding 72%, hurricane 14%, earthquake 5% of expected building damage.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (Dec. 2025): expected annual building loss over building value, all census tracts; FEMA disaster declarations.
Measure: FEMA National Risk Index: expected yearly building loss from 18 natural hazards, as a share of building value. 185 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,239 nationally.
Commute
47th of 51D8/100 The commute is the toll. Boston and Brockton weigh on the town measure; 54% of residents live in bottom-quarter places. The average trip to work takes 29.1 minutes, 3 minutes longer than the national average. Every neighbor scores higher, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island among them.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: average one-way commute of the town’s workers. 185 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Growth
31st of 51C+40/100 Growing a little slower than the country. Building has slowed since: 3rd fewest new homes per resident in 2025. Builders added 1.8 homes per 1,000 residents in 2025, after the population grew 7.4% from 2010 to 2020 (22nd fastest). Among its neighbors it does best on growth, with New York second.
New homes permitted in 2025: 1.8 per 1,000 residents (3rd fewest).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2020 decennial counts; Census building permits.
Measure: population change between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. 176 Massachusetts towns of 10,000+ against 5,079 nationally.
How Massachusetts compares to its neighbors
Against New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont, Massachusetts leads on schools and growth but trails on the commute.
| Massachusetts | New York | Connecticut | Rhode Island | New Hampshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B+ 7016th of 51 | C 3235th of 51 | B+ 6817th of 51 | B− 5225th of 51 | A− 849th of 51 |
| Safety | B+ 7426th official · 29% in top towns | B− 4635th official · 9% in top towns | A 922nd official · 28% in top towns | A+ 984th official · 37% in top towns | A+ 1003rd official · 42% in top towns |
| Schools | A+ 981st official · 39% in top towns | B+ 7427th official · 20% in top towns | A 944th official · 35% in top towns | B 5623rd official · 15% in top towns | A 906th official · 31% in top towns |
| Cost of living | D 647th official · 1% in top towns | C− 1648th official · 5% in top towns | D 1049th official · 2% in top towns | D− 243rd official · 0% in top towns | C− 1850th official · 8% in top towns |
| Health | A 8610th official · 41% in top towns | B+ 6620th official · 22% in top towns | A 889th official · 41% in top towns | B+ 7213th official · 22% in top towns | A 902nd official · 40% in top towns |
| Housing | B− 5047th official · 23% in top towns | C+ 3650th official · 21% in top towns | A− 7834th official · 30% in top towns | C+ 4442nd official · 15% in top towns | A+ 986th official · 25% in top towns |
| Natural hazards | A 869th official · 53% in top towns | A+ 964th official · 74% in top towns | C 2830th official · <1% in top towns | A− 826th official · 32% in top towns | C 3225th official · 0% in top towns |
| Commute | D 847th official · 7% in top towns | D 1251st official · 17% in top towns | C− 1837th official · 6% in top towns | C− 2428th official · 4% in top towns | C− 1640th official · 12% in top towns |
| Growth | C+ 4022nd official · 9% in top towns | C− 2233rd official · 2% in top towns | D− 048th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1832nd official · 2% in top towns | C− 1631st official · 2% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the state’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of residents of 10,000+ towns living in a nationally top-quarter town. Neighbor names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is the figure a state agency or federal survey publishes for the whole state, ranked against the other 49 states and D.C. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the state’s towns and cities of 10,000+, the share whose town falls in the national top quarter of 10,000+ towns. A state can do well on one and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the state’s standing among the 50 states and D.C.: the two measures’ percentiles averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. 100 is the best state, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, commute 10, housing 8, natural hazards 8, growth 8 (out of 100). D.C., a single city, is left out of the town measure and graded on official figures alone.
What it is not. A state figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a state is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out towns under 10,000 and towns missing data. Neither says anything about any one neighborhood.
Schools use the Nation’s Report Card because each state’s own tests are set to different bars. Hazards use FEMA’s expected building damage, the same loss rate behind our town hazard grades. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work