Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Bath is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B+ overall, ranked 36th of 142 in Maine, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is safety: crime is low: it reports less per resident than 75% of U.S. towns. It also does better than most on schools: its schools outperform 69% of the state's. Its lowest everyday mark is in incomes: the median household income is $69K, and 12% of residents live below the poverty line. A typical home there costs about $375K, 4.1 years of the Portland metro’s $92K median household income. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 100% of U.S. towns, with 13 places on the National Register. Bath’s trail density is 2.5 miles per square mile, above both Maine’s towns (0.7) and U.S. towns (0.4). Only 5 of Maine’s 285 towns score higher on walkability. Its National Register listings include U.S. Customhouse and Post Office and Percy and Small Shipyard.
Where Bath beats most towns.
Census counts: 949 in 1790, a peak of 14,731 in 1920, 8,766 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1812 and 6 maps from 1894 on.
13 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Bath takes its name from Bath in Somerset, England, 3,070 miles across the Atlantic.
UKUK editionBath takes its name from Bath, a large town in Somerset, England.
4 more U.S. towns are named after Bath:Bath, NY11,413Bath, PA2,903Bath, NC243Bath, SD91
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maine), ordered by how far Bath is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bath. Close and well known come first.
28 mi LighthousePortland Head Light
26 mi LandmarkFort Gorges
in town MuseumMaine Maritime Museum13 mi LandmarkSpirit Pond runestones
18 mi LighthousePemaquid Point LightPortland Head Light: Aniarku, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fort Gorges: Dirk Ingo Franke, CC BY 3.0 · Maine Maritime Museum: Maine Maritime Museum, CC BY 3.0 · Pemaquid Point Light: WestportWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bath, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 3, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Bath.
Bath has more trail for its size than nearly any town in Maine, draws workers from Brunswick and beyond and is safe by national standards but not by Maine’s.
At 2.5 miles of trail per square mile, it ranks #2 of 140 Maine towns.
Trails total 33 miles in 18 parks and preserves. Lilly Pond Community Forest, at 245 acres with 7.8 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lilly Pond Community Forest | 7.8 mi | 245 |
| 2. Thorne Head Preserve | 3.5 mi | 93 |
| 3. Butler Head Preserve | 3.3 mi | 135 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Two of the 6 schools are below, and why each made the list. The largest public high school is Morse High School, with 615 students. RSU 01 - Lkrsu runs its public schools.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bath Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 317 | C+ |
| Morse High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 615 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within ME on state tests and graduation
8,837 jobs are based in Bath, 2.3 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Half commute less than 10 miles. Bath: 30% of working residents work locally, against 12% in Maine’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. The top destinations are Brunswick (12%), Portland (10%) and Augusta (4%).
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 30% | 12% | 8% |
| Median household income | $69,000 | $78,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
At 9.8 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 60% of Maine’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 3 reported in 2025, 0.3 per 1,000 residents.
The violent offense rate in Bath is 0.3 per 1,000 residents. The level of property crime here is 8.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.3 per 1,000 residents | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 8.7 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
The Bath weather station records that about 2 days a year reach 90°, fewer than in 95% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 77.7°, cooler than in 96% of U.S. towns; January nights average 13.4°.
About 72 inches of snow falls in a winter. In Bath, the typical July afternoon high is 78°F.
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 78°F | 79°F | 85°F |
| January low | 13°F | 10°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Against the 10,466 U.S. towns with household incomes like Bath’s, it is healthier than 79%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income.
Among adults in Bath, 29% have been diagnosed with depression. In Bath, 30% of adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 33% | 36% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 23% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 33% | 35% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Bath | ME |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.8% | 14.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
For households in Bath, the share who own their home is 64%. Zillow values the typical Bath home at about $375,000, up 0.9% in a year, 9% below the Maine typical home. A home in Bath typically sold within 39 days of listing.
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 64% | 81% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,044 a month | $1,108 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Every broad age group is within 4 points of the Maine average. 25% of Bath residents are 65 or older. The town’s midpoint age stands at 45.4 years.
| Bath | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 16% | 18% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 25% | 21% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 32% | 29% |
| Median age | 45.4 years | 44.9 years | 40.5 years |
54% women, 46% men
About 85 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±2.9 points). Across Maine, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Bath | ME | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 5.1% | 9.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.4% | 8.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.3% | 8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.6% | 12% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.6% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.5% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.2% | 15.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 16.3% | 13.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.9% | 8.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.5% | 5.2% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23% | 30.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.6% | 18.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.4% | 10.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 26.6% | 22.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 15.8% | 13.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Since 1978, 12 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Bath. Expected damage from storms and floods is lower here than in 52% of U.S. communities. FEMA puts 38% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 24% to coastal flooding. Federal aid has come to Bath households in 8 declared disasters; the latest was in 2024.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
1 within 15 miles of the center of Bath
About 6 of every 100 Bath residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Maine.
Coastal flooding makes up 24% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
13 places in Bath on the National Register of Historic Places.
20 notable people were born in Bath.
City in Maine, United States
Bath is a city in and county seat of Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. Bath had a 2024 population of 8,870. Bath is growing at a rate of 0.29% annually, and its population has increased by 1.21% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 8,764 in 2020. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its 19th-century architecture. It is home to the Bath Iron Works and Heritage Days Festival, held annually during the Fourth of July weekend. It is commonly known as the "City of Ships" due to the number of sailing ships that were built in the Bath shipyards. Bath is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan statistical area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Bath.
| Town | ME rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | #36 | B+ | C+ | A− | B+ | B |
| West Bath | — | — | B | — | B+ | B+ |
| Woolwich | #19 | A− | B+ | — | B+ | A− |
| Brunswick | #24 | A− | C− | B | A− | A |
| Phippsburg | — | — | A− | — | B+ | A− |
| Topsham | #30 | A− | C | B+ | A− | A− |
| Arrowsic | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bowdoinham | #80 | C+ | C | — | A− | B |
West Bath and Phippsburg have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. West Bath, Woolwich, Phippsburg and Bowdoinham report no FBI crime data of their own. Arrowsic isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bath with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Bath grades B+ overall, better than 72% of U.S. towns and #36 of 142 in Maine. It grades B for health, A− for safety and B+ for schools.
20 notable people were born here, including Arthur Sewall and Edward Page Mitchell.
