Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 1,636. Public schools that outperform most of Maine.
Palermo’s best subject grade is an A− for schools; its weakest is a C for walkability. Palermo’s average trip to work is 31 minutes, against 25 minutes in Maine’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. Only 2 of the 144 Maine towns we compare have a lower share of working residents who work in town than Palermo. On history, just 1 of Maine’s 285 towns do worse. The biggest park or preserve is Palermo Preserve, at 75 acres. Palermo has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Palermo beats most towns.
Where Palermo’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maine), ordered by how far Palermo is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 761 in 1810, a low of 511 in 1950, 1,570 in 2020. The archive holds 2 old photos and papers going back to 2014 and 4 maps from 1916 on.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Palermo, 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 Palermo.
Its public schools are run by RSU 12. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palermo Consolidated SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 111 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within ME on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Palermo for work: only 3% work in town. Jobs based in Palermo grew to 110 in 2023, 44 more than in 2013. 4.8% of residents live below the poverty line in Palermo, where Maine’s towns sit at 9% and U.S. towns at 9.6%.
| Palermo | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 4.8% | 9% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $89,000 | $78,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Palermo has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. The July high in Palermo is 78°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical Palermo home is worth about $359,000, down 1.2% in a year, 13% below the Maine typical home. 91% of Palermo households own their home.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 58% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Palermo beats the Maine average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 28% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Palermo.
| Palermo | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 23% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 81% | 79% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 9.8% | 11% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| What stands out | Palermo | ME |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 12% | 14.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Maine average. Palermo has grown 4.3% since 2020, to 1,636 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 32% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 36% across Maine.
| Palermo | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 18% | 18% | 22% |
| Median age | 43.4 years | 44.9 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 21% | 22% | 18% |
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±8.3 points. Across Maine, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Palermo | ME | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 7.6% | 9.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.5% | 8.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.9% | 8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.1% | 12% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.9% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 15.5% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 11.3% | 15.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.3% | 13.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 10.9% | 8.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.3% | 5.2% | 10.4% |
| High school | 32.9% | 30.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.7% | 18.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.4% | 10.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 20.6% | 22.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.1% | 13.7% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,600, single groups can be off by several points
5.1 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. Palermo’s trail density is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Palermo | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.1% | 4.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Palermo Preserve | — | 75 |
| 2. Lindell Trail | — | 36 |
| 3. Palermo Recreational Fields | — | 9 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Palermo. Close and well known come first.
33 mi LandmarkFort Knox
39 mi LighthousePemaquid Point Light
26 mi MuseumFarnsworth Art Museum
38 mi GardenCoastal Maine Botanical Gardens
19 mi MuseumMaine State Museum
28 mi National MonumentFrances Perkins National MonumentFort Knox: Unknown, Public domain · Pemaquid Point Light: WestportWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Farnsworth Art Museum: Panoramio user MementoMori, CC BY 3.0 · Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens: CMBG editor, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Maine State Museum: Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Frances Perkins National Monument: Robert Reed, NPS employee (per the same source), Public domain
1 within 15 miles of the center of Palermo
About 3 of every 100 Palermo residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Maine.
3 notable people were born in Palermo.
Town in Maine, United States
Palermo is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,570 at the 2020 census. Palermo is included in the Augusta, Maine, micropolitan New England City and Town Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Palermo.
| Town | ME rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palermo | — | — | B− | — | A− | B |
| China | #17 | A− | B | — | B+ | B+ |
| Liberty | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Washington | — | — | B+ | — | C | B− |
| Somerville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Windsor | #67 | B− | C+ | — | A− | B− |
Palermo and Washington have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Palermo, China, Washington and Windsor report no FBI crime data of their own. Liberty and Somerville aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Palermo with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Public schools that outperform most of Maine.
That is 4.9 years of the area's median household income ($72,782 across the county). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
