Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The best of Bolivar’s subject grades are an A− for cost of living and history; the weakest is a D for incomes. On hazard risk, just 73 of New York’s 1,216 towns do worse. Bolivar Free Library is on the National Register of Historic Places. Bolivar has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Bolivar beats most towns.
Where Bolivar’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 York), ordered by how far Bolivar is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 449 in 1830, a peak of 2,813 in 1930, 2,051 in 2020. The archive holds 4 old photos and papers going back to 2007 and 3 maps from 1925 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bolivar, 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 Bolivar.
In Bolivar, the typical journey to work is 27 minutes. For most workers, Bolivar is a place to come home to: only 10% work in town. Bolivar: 17% of residents live below the poverty line, above both the New York town median (9.5%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). It had 361 jobs in 2023, up 96 from 2013.
| Bolivar | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $59,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The largest public high school is Bolivar-Richburg Junior-Senior High School, with 336 students. Its two schools are below. 2 public schools serve Bolivar, with 353 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolivar-Richburg Pre-K ProgramLargest public school before high schoolGrades PK | Grades PK | 17 | – |
| Bolivar-Richburg Junior-Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 6–12 | Grades 6–12 | 336 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
For adults in Bolivar, the share who smoke cigarettes is 17%. Bolivar: 38% of adults have obesity, above both New York’s towns (33%) and U.S. towns (35%).
| Bolivar | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 13% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 34% | 35% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | Bolivar | NY |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 9.8% | 6% |
| More smokers | 17.2% | 11.3% |
| More adults with heart disease | 8.4% | 6.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Households in Bolivar have drawn federal disaster aid once, in 2011. Expected damage from storms and floods is higher here than in 72% of U.S. communities.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Bolivar’s midsummer high comes in at 79°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Only 5 of the 741 New York towns we compare have a lower share of conserved land than Bolivar. 5.2 miles of trail. The town’s concentration of trails stands at 0.2 miles per square mile.
| Bolivar | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.1% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Bolivar; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Bolivar residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
Town in New York, United States
Bolivar ( BOL-i-vər) is a town in Allegany County, New York, United States. The population was 2,051 at the 2020 census. The town is named after Simón Bolívar. Bolivar is on the south border of the county and is east of Olean. There is also a village of Bolivar in the town. As "the heart of the Allegany Oil Field" the Bolivar-Richburg area rose to significance during the oil boom era of the late 1800s. During the brief initial oil boom of the 1880s it was purportedly the wealthiest locale, per capita, in the United States. By the early 1900s the initial boom, with its economic and population impacts, had significantly faded, but secondary oil recovery techniques applied to the oil fields (s…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Bolivar.
Bolivar, Wirt and Genesee have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Bolivar, Wirt and Genesee report no FBI crime data of their own. Alma isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bolivar with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
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 A−.