Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Yarmouth grades A overall, 8th among Maine's 142 graded towns. Its schools outperform 95% of the state's and CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 95% of the country. What holds it back is price: the typical home is worth about $763K, 8.3 years of the Portland metro’s $92K median household income. 67% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Yarmouth, where Maine’s towns sit at 32% and U.S. towns at 29%. Yarmouth's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 97% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings include Camp Hammond and Grand Trunk Railroad Station.
Where Yarmouth beats most towns.
Capt. Reuben Merrill House| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Yarmouth Elementary School | 2–5 | 476 |
| William H Rowe School | PK–1 | 246 |
| Frank H Harrison Middle School | 6–8 | 379 |
Census counts: 2,144 in 1850, 8,990 in 2020. The archive holds 48 old photos and papers going back to 1773 and 4 maps from 1892 on.
11 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maine), ordered by how far Yarmouth is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for schools (better than 95% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 4%), so the A overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Yarmouth. Close and well known come first.
12 mi LighthousePortland Head Light
9 mi LandmarkFort Gorges18 mi Ancient sitePopham Colony
10 mi MuseumMaine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum
11 mi MuseumPortland Museum of Art18 mi LandmarkSpirit Pond runestonesPortland Head Light: Aniarku, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fort Gorges: Dirk Ingo Franke, CC BY 3.0 · Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum: No machine-readable author provided. Gwernol assumed (based on copyright claims), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Portland Museum of Art: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Yarmouth, 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 Yarmouth.
Yarmouth has schools in the top 5% of Maine and gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of Maine.
At 8.3 years of the Portland metro’s $92K median household income, the typical home (about $763K) costs more against local pay than in 96% of Maine towns; that ratio is one input to its D− for cost of living. The median property tax bill is $7,120, against $3,036 across Maine, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Yarmouth’s median rent is $1,693 a month. The typical Yarmouth home is worth about $763,000, up 4.1% in a year, 85% above the Maine typical home.
| Yarmouth | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,693 a month | $1,106 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 80% | 81% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its A+ ranks #3 of the 142 Maine towns we grade for schools. Its A+ is the best School Grade on its borders; Freeport (A) is next.
Its public schools are run by the Yarmouth Schools. Three of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Yarmouth High School, with 554 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yarmouth Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades 2–5 | Grades 2–5 | 476 | A+ |
| Yarmouth High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 554 | A− |
| Frank H Harrison Middle SchoolTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 379 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within ME on state tests and graduation
31 miles of trail in 24 parks and preserves. The trail density in Yarmouth is 1.4 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Pratt's Brook Park, 229 acres with 5.5 miles of trail.
| Yarmouth | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.4 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 6.5% | 4.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pratt's Brook Park | 5.5 mi | 229 |
| 2. Frank Knight Forest | 2.3 mi | 92 |
| 3. Fels-Groves Farm Preserve | 1.6 mi | 54 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its widest gap with Maine is food insecurity: 5.9% of its 6,839 adults worry about having enough food, against 10.7% statewide.
8.9% of adults smoke cigarettes in Yarmouth. Among 143 Maine towns, just 3 have a lower share of adults who get no exercise outside work than Yarmouth. 28% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Yarmouth.
| Yarmouth | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.9% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 23% | 25% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | Yarmouth | ME |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.9% | 10.7% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.6% | 7.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Violent crime is rare: 1 reported in 2025, 0.1 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 68% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 7 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Yarmouth.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The Gray weather station, 9 miles away, records that 84 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 95% of U.S. towns. January nights average 14.3°: colder than most of the country, but milder than 89% of Maine places with climate records; July afternoons average 78.4°.
Yarmouth has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain.
| Yarmouth | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 78°F | 79°F | 85°F |
| January low | 14°F | 10°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Jobs based here grew from 3,180 in 2013 to 4,920.
Most working residents leave Yarmouth for work: only 16% work in town. Since 2013, Yarmouth has added 1,740 jobs, to 4,920 in 2023. 20% of Yarmouth workers work from home.
| Yarmouth | Maine towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 20% | 14% | 11% |
| Median household income | $110,000 | $78,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 16% | 12% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
5 within 15 miles of the center of Yarmouth
About 8 of every 100 Yarmouth residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Maine.
6.5% of the town is conserved land, across 24 parks and preserves.
11 places in Yarmouth on the National Register of Historic Places.
6 notable people were born in Yarmouth.
Town in Maine, United States
Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. Yarmouth is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England City and Town Area. The town's population was 8,990 in the 2020 census. Yarmouth is 12 miles (19 km) north of the state's largest city, Portland, and is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The town's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, and its location on the banks of the Royal River (formerly Yarmouth River), which empties into Casco Bay less than 1 mile (1.6 km) away, means it is a prime location as a harbor. When originally settled as North Yarmouth in 1636, the town was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and remained part of its subsequent incarn…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Yarmouth.
| Town | ME rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yarmouth | #8 | A | D− | A | A+ | A |
| Freeport | #9 | A | C− | B+ | A | A |
| Cumberland | #1 | A+ | D | A+ | A | A+ |
| North Yarmouth | #15 | A− | C− | — | A | A |
| Chebeague Island | — | — | — | — | — | — |
North Yarmouth reports no FBI crime data of its own. Chebeague Island isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Yarmouth with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Yarmouth grades A overall, better than 90% of U.S. towns and #8 of 142 in Maine. It grades A for health, A for safety and A+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.
6 notable people were born here, including Sophia Laukli and Oliver Wahlstrom.
