Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Standish gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $458K for a typical one, or 5 years of the Portland metro’s $92K median household income. It grades B+ overall, 35th among Maine's 142 graded towns. On the plus side, the median household earns $105K. 12% of the land in Standish is conserved, where Maine’s towns sit at 4.7% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Standish is home to Saint Joseph's College of Maine. Standish has 6 places on the National Register.
Where Standish beats most towns.
Census counts: 716 in 1790, a low of 716 in 1790, 10,244 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1907 and 3 maps from 1891 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maine), ordered by how far Standish is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Standish. Close and well known come first.
39 mi LakeLake Winnipesaukee
22 mi LighthousePortland Head Light
20 mi LandmarkFort Gorges40 mi Ancient sitePopham Colony
33 mi Scenic railwayConway Scenic Railroad
38 mi Theme parkStory LandLake Winnipesaukee: No machine-readable author provided. JohnJHenderson~commonswiki assumed (based o, Public domain · Portland Head Light: Aniarku, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fort Gorges: Dirk Ingo Franke, CC BY 3.0 · Conway Scenic Railroad: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Story Land: AnotherMaker, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Standish, 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 Standish.
Standish owes part of its health edge to its incomes and gets more snow than most of the country, though not than most of Maine.
63 miles of trail in 9 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Steep Falls Wildlife Management Area, 2,699 acres with 8 miles of trail. Standish’s trail density is 0.8 miles per square mile, against 0.7 in Maine’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sebago Lake Land Reserve | 14.7 mi | 2,161 |
| 2. Steep Falls Wildlife Management Area | 8 mi | 2,699 |
| 3. Randall Orchards Preserve | 1.5 mi | 343 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by RSU 06/MSAD 06. Three of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Bonny Eagle High School, with 1,027 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edna Libby Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–3 | Grades PK–3 | 296 | A |
| Bonny Eagle High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,027 | A− |
| Steep Falls Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 85 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within ME on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Standish for work: only 8% work in town. The average trip to work in Standish is 29 minutes. Since 2013, Standish has added 152 jobs, to 1,885 in 2023.
| Standish | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $105,000 | $78,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 7.3% | 9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 14% | 15% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 76% of U.S. communities. Since 2005, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Standish.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 7,902 U.S. towns with household incomes like Standish’s, it is less healthy than 52%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Standish beats the Maine average on 10 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 18% of Standish adults binge drink. Only 7 of the 143 Maine towns we compare have a lower share of adults who had a checkup this year than Standish.
| Standish | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 15% | 16% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 33% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 23% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 17% |
| What stands out | Standish | ME |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 6.4% | 7.6% |
| Fewer adults who get no exercise | 19.5% | 23.1% |
| More binge drinkers | 18.1% | 15.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The North Sebago weather station, 8 miles away, records that 70 inches of snow fall in a normal winter: more than most of the country, but less than 78% of Maine places with climate records. July afternoons average 80.5°: cooler than most of the country, but hotter than 94% of Maine places with climate records; January nights average 10.6°.
Standish has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. Standish’s July high is 81°F.
| Standish | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 81°F | 79°F | 85°F |
| January low | 11°F | 10°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Adults 18 to 34 are 27% of residents (20% statewide); people 65 and older are 15% of residents (22% statewide). 16% of residents are under 18 in Standish. Standish has grown 7.4% since 2020, to 11,000 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Standish | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 15% | 22% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 16% | 18% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 36% | 32% | 29% |
| Median age | 40.5 years | 45 years | 40.5 years |
53% women, 47% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.8 points. Across Maine, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Standish | ME | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 8.3% | 9.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.1% | 8.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 16.6% | 8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.6% | 12% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 14.5% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.8% | 15.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 11.5% | 13.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 3.7% | 8.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.2% | 5.2% | 10.4% |
| High school | 28.2% | 30.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.5% | 18.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 10% | 10.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.2% | 22.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.8% | 13.7% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Standish home is worth about $458,000, up 3% in a year, 11% above the Maine typical home.
| Standish | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 91% | 81% | 73% |
| Median rent | $983 a month | $1,108 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
1 within 15 miles of the center of Standish
About 12 of every 100 Standish residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Maine.
6 places in Standish on the National Register of Historic Places.
5 notable people were born in Standish.
Town in Maine, United States
Standish is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 10,244 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Standish Corner, Sebago Lake Village and Steep Falls, and the localities known as Richville, Elmwood, Standish Neck and Two Trails. Standish is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Standish.
Gorham next door grades higher for schools (A to Standish’s C+) and lower for cost of living (C− to B+).
| Town | ME rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standish | #35 | B+ | B+ | — | C+ | B+ |
| Limington | #57 | B | B+ | — | C+ | B− |
| Steep Falls | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Windham | #6 | A | B− | A− | B | A |
| North Windham | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hollis | #61 | B | B | — | C+ | B |
| Gorham | #2 | A+ | C− | A | A | A |
| Raymond | #5 | A | B+ | — | B | A |
Standish, Limington, Hollis and Raymond report no FBI crime data of their own. Steep Falls and North Windham aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Standish with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Standish grades B+ overall, better than 72% of U.S. towns and #35 of 142 in Maine. It grades B+ for health and C+ for schools.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
5 notable people were born here, including Simon M. Hamlin and Albion P. Howe.
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