Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
13.6 times the library visits per person than the typical Maine town.
The best of Southwest Harbor’s subject grades are an A for schools and an A− for safety and health; the weakest is a C− for incomes. 30% of working residents work locally in Southwest Harbor, against 12% in Maine’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. Among 144 Maine towns, just 9 have a lower share of homes lived in by their owners than Southwest Harbor. Southwest Harbor is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 74% of U.S. towns. 34% of the land in Southwest Harbor is conserved, above both the Maine town median (4.7%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). No town in Maine scores higher than Southwest Harbor on the outdoors. Acadia National Park, at 4,561 acres with 25.2 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Southwest Harbor has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Southwest Harbor beats most towns.
Claremont Hotel
Census counts: 888 in 1910, 1,756 in 2020. The archive holds 29 old photos and papers going back to 1899 and 4 maps from 1904 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maine), ordered by how far Southwest Harbor is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Southwest Harbor. Close and well known come first.
Big drawin town National ParkAcadia National Park4.1M visitors a year
8 mi MountainCadillac Mountain
3 mi LighthouseBass Harbor Head Light
32 mi LandmarkFort Knox
10 mi MuseumAbbe Museum
33 mi MuseumPenobscot Marine MuseumAcadia National Park: Plh1234us, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cadillac Mountain: The original uploader was NightThree at English Wikipedia., CC BY 2.0 · Bass Harbor Head Light: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fort Knox: Unknown, Public domain · Abbe Museum: AbbeMuseum, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Penobscot Marine Museum: John Smith, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Southwest Harbor, 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 Southwest Harbor.
Home values are up 10% over the year to September 2026. Southwest Harbor’s midpoint rent stands at $959 a month.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
The public schools here belong to the Southwest Harbor Public Schools. Its one school is below. 127 students attend the town’s public school.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pemetic Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 127 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within ME on state tests and graduation
29 miles of trail wind through 3 parks and preserves. The density of trails for Southwest Harbor comes to 1.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Acadia National Park | 25.2 mi | 4,561 |
| 2. Chris's Pond Park | — | 1 |
| 3. Charlotte Rhoades Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Southwest Harbor’s rate of thefts and burglaries is 5.3 per 1,000 residents. Its level of violent crime stands at 0.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Southwest Harbor | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.3 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.5 per 1,000 residents | 0.6 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
For adults in Southwest Harbor, the share who report frequent physical distress is 13%. Against the Maine average, Southwest Harbor comes out ahead on 7 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1. Among adults locally, 29% have obesity and 83% had a checkup this year.
| Southwest Harbor | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 33% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 33% | 35% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 81% | 79% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 23% | 25% |
| What stands out | Southwest Harbor | ME |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.4% | 14.8% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 10.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.3% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The July high here is 77°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
For Southwest Harbor, the mean commuting time is 16 minutes. About one worker in three stays in Southwest Harbor for work. Between 2013 and 2023, jobs locally rose by 71, to 748. The top destinations are Bar Harbor (19%), Mount Desert (8%) and Ellsworth (4%).
| Southwest Harbor | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 16 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $59,000 | $78,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 11% | 14% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In Southwest Harbor, the median age is 48.9 years. People 65 and older are 27% of residents (22% statewide). 15% of residents are under 18 locally. Since 2020, Southwest Harbor has grown 7%, to 1,873 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Southwest Harbor | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 15% | 18% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 27% | 22% | 18% |
| Median age | 48.9 years | 44.9 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 35% | 32% | 29% |
54% women, 46% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±8.3 points. Across Maine, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Southwest Harbor | ME | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 9.9% | 9.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 4.6% | 8.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 12.7% | 8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.5% | 12% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 9.4% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.9% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.3% | 15.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 15.3% | 13.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 11.4% | 8.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.2% | 5.2% | 10.4% |
| High school | 27.4% | 30.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 25.9% | 18.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.1% | 10.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 29.6% | 22.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 5.8% | 13.7% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,900, single groups can be off by several points
FEMA puts 39% of Southwest Harbor’s expected hazard losses down to hurricanes, and 26% to coastal flooding. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 58% of U.S. communities. Federal aid has come to Southwest Harbor households in 8 declared disasters; the latest was in 2024.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
1 within 15 miles of the center of Southwest Harbor
About 2 of every 100 Southwest Harbor residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Maine.
Coastal flooding makes up 26% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
4 places in Southwest Harbor on the National Register of Historic Places.
Town in Maine, United States
Southwest Harbor is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. Located on Mount Desert Island, the population was 1,756 at the 2020 census. The municipality contains within it the villages of Southwest Harbor, Manset, Seawall, Wonderland, and Pemetic Hills.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Southwest Harbor.
| Town | ME rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Harbor | — | — | C− | A− | A | A− |
| Tremont | — | — | C | — | A− | B+ |
| Cranberry Isles | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Mount Desert | — | — | C− | — | A+ | A |
| Northeast Harbor | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Frenchboro | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Southwest Harbor, Tremont and Mount Desert have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Tremont and Mount Desert report no FBI crime data of their own. Cranberry Isles, Northeast Harbor and Frenchboro aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Southwest Harbor with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
13.6 times the library visits per person than the typical Maine town.
Yes. That is 8.9 years of the area's median household income ($72,744 across the county).
