Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Whately’s best subject grades are an A for health and an A− for incomes and safety; its weakest is a D for walkability. Only 10 of Massachusetts’ 325 towns score lower on walkability. Whately’s median age is 49.3 years, above both the Massachusetts town median (43.4 years) and the median of U.S. towns (40.5 years). 31% of the land in Whately is conserved, against 19% in Massachusetts’ towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns. Whately has 1 place on the National Register. The biggest park or preserve is Great Swamp Wildlife Management Area, at 633 acres. Whately has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Whately beats most towns.
Whately Center Historic District
Census counts: 736 in 1790, a low of 736 in 1790, 1,607 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1795 and 7 maps from 1886 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Massachusetts), ordered by how far Whately is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Whately. Close and well known come first.
22 mi National Historic SiteSpringfield Armory National Historic Site14K visitors a year
18 mi LakeQuabbin Reservoir
30 mi MountainMount Greylock
27 mi Theme parkSix Flags New England
8 mi MuseumEmily Dickinson Museum
35 mi TheatreTanglewoodSpringfield Armory National Historic Site: National Park Service, Public domain · Quabbin Reservoir: engineerchange, CC BY 2.0 · Mount Greylock: Jstergis, CC BY 3.0 · Six Flags New England: Canadaolympic989, Public domain · Emily Dickinson Museum: Daderot, Public domain · Tanglewood: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Whately, 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 Whately.
Most working residents leave Whately for work: only 6% work in town. The average trip to work in Whately is 23 minutes. Jobs based in Whately grew to 1,442 in 2023, 111 more than in 2013.
| Whately | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $117,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 5.4% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.8% | 9.8% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Whately school district. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whately ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 133 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MA on state tests and graduation
Whately beats the Massachusetts average on 7 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 25% of adults have obesity in Whately.
| Whately | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 28% | 35% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 82% | 79% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 24% | 23% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 3.6% | 3.7% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | Whately | MA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 3.6% | 5.2% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.7% | 12.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.1% | 8.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Whately’s property crime rate is 2.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Whately | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.5 per 1,000 residents | 4.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.5 per 1,000 residents | 1.5 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. MacLeish Field Station | 3.5 mi | 208 |
| 2. Mt. Esther Wildlife Management Area | 1.7 mi | 273 |
| 3. Whately Center Woods Nature Retreat | 1.7 mi | 118 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Whately has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 15° and about 46 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Adults 18 to 34 are 16% of residents (24% statewide); people 65 and older are 25% of residents (18% statewide). 48% of Whately adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Whately | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 16% | 20% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 48% | 47% | 29% |
Somewhere between 38% and 64% women
The Census survey reached too few of Whately’s residents to say more: its margin here is ±13.2 points. Across Massachusetts, 51.1% of residents are women.
| Whately | MA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.4% | 10.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 5% | 9.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.3% | 9.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.7% | 14% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.7% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 14.3% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 17.1% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 17.9% | 10.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6.6% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 2.4% | 8.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 19% | 22.6% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.6% | 14.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.4% | 7.5% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 30.2% | 25.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 17.4% | 21.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,600, single groups can be off by several points
The typical Whately home is worth about $536,000, up 0.6% in a year, 18% below the Massachusetts typical home.
| Whately | Massachusetts towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $977 a month | $1,683 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 88% | 79% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 58% of U.S. communities. Since 2005, 3 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Whately.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
7 within 15 miles of the center of Whately
About 3 of every 100 Whately residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Massachusetts.
Where Whately’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
3 notable people were born in Whately.
Town in Massachusetts, United States
Whately (; WAIT-lee) is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,607 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Whately.
| Town | MA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whately | — | — | C | A− | B | A |
| Sunderland | #194 | B− | D− | B+ | B− | A |
| Deerfield | #137 | B+ | D | B | B− | A |
| Hatfield | #130 | B+ | C− | A+ | C | A |
| Conway | — | — | D | — | B− | A |
| Williamsburg | — | — | C | A− | B | A |
| South Deerfield | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Whately, Conway and Williamsburg have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Conway reports no FBI crime data of its own. South Deerfield isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Whately with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
That is 7.2 years of the area's median household income ($74,907 across the Greenfield, MA 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.
3 notable people were born here, including Abbie Park Ferguson and Chris Haffey.
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