Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
2.9 times the library visits per person than the typical New Hampshire town.
The best of Hancock’s subject grades are an A for health, civic life, and history; the weakest is a C for cost of living. 30% of residents are 65 or older in Hancock, where New Hampshire’s towns sit at 20% and U.S. towns at 18%. Among 126 New Hampshire towns, just 6 have a lower property crime rate than Hancock. 44% of the land in Hancock is conserved, above both the New Hampshire town median (18%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). Harris Center Conservation Land, at 3,595 acres with 8.2 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Only 5 of New Hampshire’s 187 towns score higher on civic life. Hancock has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Hancock beats most towns.
Hancock-Greenfield Bridge| Widest gap | Hancock | NH |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.9% | 9.5% |
Census counts: 634 in 1790, a low of 531 in 1920, 1,731 in 2020. The archive holds 28 old photos and papers going back to 1922 and 4 maps from 1900 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Hampshire), ordered by how far Hancock is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hancock, 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 Hancock.
28 miles of trail in 18 parks and preserves. Hancock’s trail density is 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Harris Center Conservation Land | 8.2 mi | 3,595 |
| 2. Welch Family Farm& Forest | 1.4 mi | 241 |
| 3. Juggernaut Pond Forest | 0.5 mi | 188 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Contoocook Valley School District. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–4 | Grades PK–4 | 70 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NH on state tests and graduation
12% of Hancock adults report frequent mental distress. Hancock beats the New Hampshire average on 14 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 29% of Hancock adults feel lonely.
| Hancock | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 16% | 17% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 78% | 79% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.2% | 11% | 14% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 16% |
| What stands out | Hancock | NH |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.9% | 9.5% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.3% | 6.8% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 13.1% | 9.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents leave Hancock for work: only 7% work in town. The average trip to work in Hancock is 33 minutes. Since 2013, Hancock has added 83 jobs, to 228 in 2023.
| Hancock | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 4.1% | 6.8% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $95,000 | $103,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 15% | 16% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Hancock has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 80°, January nights drop to 12° and about 60 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Hancock's reported crime rate is well below New Hampshire's. Violent crime is rare: 2 reported in 2025.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 60% of U.S. communities. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Hancock since 2007.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Hancock home is worth about $542,000, up 2.6% in a year, 6% above the New Hampshire typical home. 86% of households own their home in Hancock.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hancock. Close and well known come first.
10 mi MountainMount Monadnock
27 mi Stadium & arenaSNHU Arena
25 mi Ski areaMount Sunapee77 runs · 1,469 ft vertical6 mi Ski areaCrotched Mountain Ski & Ride22 runs · 881 ft vertical16 mi Ski areaPats Peak39 runs · 751 ft vertical
27 mi MuseumCurrier Museum of ArtMount Monadnock: Jonwmcinenrey, CC BY-SA 4.0 · SNHU Arena: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0 · Mount Sunapee: User:Josephbrophy, Public domain · Currier Museum of Art: Struthious Bandersnatch, CC BY-SA 3.0
2 within 15 miles of the center of Hancock
About 4 of every 100 Hancock residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Hampshire.
43.5% of the town is conserved land, across 18 parks and preserves.
2 places in Hancock on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Hancock.
Town in New Hampshire, United States
Hancock is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,731 at the 2020 census. Hancock is home to the Welch Family Farm Forest. The main village of the town, where 213 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Hancock census-designated place (CDP), and is located at the junction of New Hampshire routes 123 and 137.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Hancock.
| Town | NH rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock | — | — | C | — | B− | A |
| Greenfield | — | — | B− | — | B− | B+ |
| Bennington | — | — | C+ | A | B− | B+ |
| Antrim | #68 | B | C+ | B+ | B− | B+ |
| Harrisville | — | — | C− | — | B− | A |
| Peterborough | #36 | A− | C | A | B− | A |
Hancock, Greenfield, Bennington and Harrisville have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Hancock, Greenfield and Harrisville report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Hancock with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
2.9 times the library visits per person than the typical New Hampshire town.
That is 5.2 years of the area's median household income ($103,545 across the Manchester-Nashua, NH metro 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 Eli Bremer and Matthew Donovan.
