Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The best of Canterbury’s subject grades are an A for health and an A− for incomes and history; the weakest is a C− for cost of living. Canterbury’s median rent is $2,136 a month, above both New Hampshire’s towns ($1,388 a month) and U.S. towns ($1,185 a month). Among 127 New Hampshire towns, just 10 have a lower share of working residents who work in town than Canterbury. 18% of the land in Canterbury is conserved, where New Hampshire’s towns sit at 18% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Canterbury has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Canterbury Shaker Village and Northfield Union Church. Canterbury's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 80% of U.S. towns. Canterbury has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Canterbury beats most towns.
Canterbury Shaker VillageWhere Canterbury’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Hampshire), ordered by how far Canterbury is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1906.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Canterbury, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 19, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Canterbury.
Canterbury beats the New Hampshire average on 5 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 28% of Canterbury adults feel lonely. Only 9 of the 127 New Hampshire towns we compare have a higher share of adults who had a checkup this year than Canterbury.
| Canterbury | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 30% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.4% | 11% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 81% | 78% | 79% |
| What stands out | Canterbury | NH |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.4% | 8.9% |
| More women getting mammograms | 84.6% | 78.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its public schools are run by the Shaker Regional School District. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canterbury Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 90 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NH on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Canterbury for work: only 5% work in town. Canterbury’s median household income is $129,000. Since 2013, Canterbury has added 80 jobs, to 345 in 2023.
| Canterbury | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $129,000 | $103,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 5.4% | 6.8% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
47 miles of trail in 14 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Muchyedo Banks Wildlife Management Area, at 274 acres. The trail density in Canterbury is 1.1 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mary & Quentin Hutchins Forest | 1.2 mi | 89 |
| 2. Shaker State Forest | 1 mi | 226 |
| 3. Rocky Pond Conservation Area | 0.4 mi | 94 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Canterbury has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 81°, January nights drop to 12° and about 68 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Canterbury's reported crime rate is below New Hampshire's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. Violent crime is rare: 2 reported in 2025.
| Canterbury | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.4 per 1,000 residents | 4.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.8 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the New Hampshire average. 49% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Canterbury. Canterbury has grown 3.4% since 2020, to 2,463 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Canterbury | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 49% | 39% | 29% |
| Median age | 48.6 years | 44.8 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 17% | 18% | 22% |
54% women, 46% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.7 points. Across New Hampshire, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Canterbury | NH | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 7.2% | 9.3% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.2% | 8.9% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.6% | 8.7% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11% | 12.7% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 10.9% | 12.4% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.8% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 18.4% | 15.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 14.4% | 12.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.5% | 7.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.7% | 5.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23.1% | 26.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 10.1% | 17.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.8% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 27% | 24.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 22.4% | 16.1% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,500, single groups can be off by several points
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 54% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Canterbury home is worth about $509,000, up 1.7% in a year, close to the New Hampshire typical home.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Canterbury. Close and well known come first.
20 mi LakeLake Winnipesaukee
39 mi Ancient siteAmerica's Stonehenge
in town MuseumCanterbury Shaker Village
26 mi Stadium & arenaSNHU Arena
27 mi Ski areaMount Sunapee77 runs · 1,469 ft vertical
9 mi MuseumMcAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center50K visitors a yearLake Winnipesaukee: No machine-readable author provided. JohnJHenderson~commonswiki assumed (based o, Public domain · America's Stonehenge: User:Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Canterbury Shaker Village: SayCheeeeeese, Public domain · SNHU Arena: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0 · Mount Sunapee: User:Josephbrophy, Public domain · McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center: Starhop, CC BY-SA 3.0
3 within 15 miles of the center of Canterbury
About 7 of every 100 Canterbury residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Hampshire.
2 places in Canterbury on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Canterbury.
Town in New Hampshire, United States
Canterbury is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,389 at the 2020 census. The Canterbury Shaker Village is in the eastern part of the town.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Canterbury.
| Town | NH rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canterbury | — | — | C− | — | C | A |
| Boscawen | #83 | B− | C | A | B− | A− |
| Loudon | #52 | B+ | C | A | B− | B+ |
| Concord | #98 | C+ | C− | B− | C− | A− |
| Northfield | #86 | B− | B | B+ | C | B+ |
Canterbury has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Canterbury reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Canterbury with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes. That is 5.3 years of the area's median household income ($97,004 across the Concord, NH area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
3 notable people were born here, including Kenneth MacKenna and Mary Mills Patrick.
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