Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Few places in the country grade higher. Stow earns an A+, 30th of 282 graded towns in Massachusetts. It is among the healthiest towns in the country on CDC estimates, crime is low: it reports less per resident than 92% of U.S. towns, and the median household earns $186K. The exception is cost of living: homes are expensive, about $806K for a typical one and 7 times the Boston metro’s $116K median household income. 75% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Stow, above both the Massachusetts town median (47%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%). Its National Register listings include Hapgood House and Tenney Homestead. Among 283 Massachusetts towns, just 3 have a lower share of working residents who work in town than Stow.
Where Stow beats most towns.
Brown-Stow House| Widest gap | Stow | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.4% | 12.4% |
Census counts: 801 in 1790, a low of 801 in 1790, 7,174 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1669 and 7 maps from 1887 on.
5 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Stow is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Stow. Close and well known come first.
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaFenway Park
Big draw27 mi Stadium & arenaGillette Stadium
Big draw32 mi LakeLake Chaubunagungamaug
9 mi LakeWalden Pond
Big draw22 mi MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum
24 mi AttractionFreedom TrailFenway Park: Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gillette Stadium: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lake Chaubunagungamaug: Bree from Worcester, MA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Walden Pond: Victorgrigas, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Sean Dungan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Freedom Trail: Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Stow, 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 Stow.
Stow reports less crime than Sudbury or any other graded neighbor, has more 90° days than almost anywhere else in Massachusetts and keeps more of its land conserved than most of Massachusetts.
Its 3,571 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in 81% of Massachusetts towns.
72 miles of trail in 34 parks and preserves. The trail density in Stow is 4.0 miles per square mile. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, at 992 acres with 4.4 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Stow Town Forest | 9.8 mi | 376 |
| 2. Flagg Hill | 4.9 mi | 290 |
| 3. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge | 4.4 mi | 992 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Nashoba school district. Its two schools are below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Center SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 485 | A |
| HaleTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 247 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with Massachusetts is food insecurity: 5.4% of its 5,545 adults worry about having enough food, against 12.4% statewide.
Stow beats the Massachusetts average on 21 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 13% of Stow adults report frequent mental distress.
| Stow | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 17% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.5% | 12% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 28% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 7.3% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Stow | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.4% | 12.4% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 2.3% | 5.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.5% | 8.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its A tops all 5 graded towns on its borders; Sudbury (A) comes closest. Violent crime is rare: 5 reported in 2025, 0.7 per 1,000 residents.
Stow’s property crime rate is 3.3 per 1,000 residents.
| Stow | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.3 per 1,000 residents | 4.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1.5 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 80% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
36.6% of workers work from home, against 18.6% across Massachusetts.
Most working residents leave Stow for work: only 4% work in town. 5.2% of residents live below the poverty line in Stow. The top destinations are Boston (8%), Waltham (7%) and Cambridge (4%).
| Stow | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $186,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 36 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 5.2% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The typical Stow home is worth about $807,000, up 0.8% in a year, 23% above the Massachusetts typical home.
| Stow | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,782 a month | $1,682 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 85% | 79% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
The Bedford weather station, 12 miles away, records that about 13 days a year reach 90°, the highest of 539 Massachusetts places with climate records.
Stow 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
8 within 15 miles of the center of Stow
About 4 of every 100 Stow residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Massachusetts.
31.2% of the town is conserved land, across 34 parks and preserves.
5 places in Stow on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Stow.
Town in Massachusetts, United States
Stow is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 21 miles (34 km) west of Boston, in the MetroWest region of Massachusetts. The population was 7,174 at the 2020 census. Stow was officially incorporated in 1683 with an area of approximately 40 square miles (100 km2). Over centuries it gave up land as newer, smaller towns were created, ceding land to Harvard (1732), Shirley (1765), Boxborough (1783), Hudson (1866) and Maynard (1871). Stow now has an area of 18.1 square miles (47 km2). With the exception of factories at Assabet Village and Rock Bottom (later Maynard and Gleasondale), Stow was primarily sparsely settled farm and orchard land until the 1950s.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Stow.
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Stow grades A+ overall, better than 97% of U.S. towns and #30 of 282 in Massachusetts. It grades A+ for health, A for safety and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
3 notable people were born here, including Clive Weeden and Chris Fleming.
