Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Catskill is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C− overall, 629th among New York's 745 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 52% of the country. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $246K, 3.2 years of the county’s $78K median household income. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 98% of U.S. towns, with 18 places on the National Register. Its National Register listings include Thomas Cole House and US Post Office-Catskill. 21% of working residents work locally in Catskill, against 10% in New York’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness, at 1,302 acres with 8.3 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
Where Catskill beats most towns.
Thomas Cole House is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 11,849 in 2000, 11,298 in 2020. The archive holds 24 old photos and papers going back to 1740 and 5 maps from 1895 on.
18 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Catskill is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Catskill. Close and well known come first.
6 mi MuseumOlana State Historic Site
30 mi National Historic SiteHome of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site102K visitors a year
6 mi WaterfallKaaterskill Falls
28 mi National Historic SiteVanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site295K visitors a yearin town Zoo & aquariumCatskill Game Farm
34 mi TheatreTanglewoodOlana State Historic Site: Netniks, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site: Crunch, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kaaterskill Falls: Mwanner, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site: Daderot, Public domain · Tanglewood: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Catskill, 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 Catskill.
| Catskill | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 7.3% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Kaaterskill Wild Forest | 9 mi | 765 |
| 2. Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness | 8.3 mi | 1,302 |
| 3. Dutchman's Landing Park | 0.3 mi | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Catskill Central School District. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Catskill Senior High School, with 394 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catskill Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 550 | C |
| Catskill Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 394 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
Catskill has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 16° and about 31 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Catskill has about as many jobs (4,005) as working residents, but only 964 people both live and work here.
About one in 5 of Catskill’s working residents works in town. Since 2013, Catskill has added 616 jobs, to 4,005 in 2023. The average trip to work in Catskill is 28 minutes.
| Catskill | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $69,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 13% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 60% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 91 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Catskill.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
15% of Catskill adults report frequent physical distress. Catskill beats the New York average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 82% of Catskill adults had a checkup this year.
| Catskill | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 14% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 81% | 79% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 34% | 35% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 25% | 25% |
| What stands out | Catskill | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 12.1% | 14.5% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.7% | 7.9% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.4% | 6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
2 within 15 miles of the center of Catskill
About 4 of every 100 Catskill residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
18 places in Catskill on the National Register of Historic Places.
24 notable people were born in Catskill.
Town in New York, United States
Catskill is a town in the southeastern section of Greene County, New York, United States, and is the county seat of Greene County. The population was 11,298 at the 2020 census, the largest town in the county. The western part of the town is in the Catskill Park. The town contains a village, also called Catskill. The village of Catskill has a well-defined Main Street. There is a public boat launch on the Hudson River called Dutchman's Landing.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Catskill.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catskill | #629 | C− | C | — | C | B− |
| Athens | #642 | C− | C− | — | C | B |
| Hunter | #419 | B− | C | A− | B− | B− |
| Germantown | — | — | C− | — | B− | A− |
| Palenville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Saugerties | #299 | B | C− | A− | B− | A− |
| South Cairo | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Greenport | #703 | D | D | — | C− | B− |
Germantown has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Catskill, Athens, Germantown and Greenport report no FBI crime data of their own. Palenville and South Cairo aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Catskill with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Catskill grades C− overall, better than 20% of U.S. towns and #629 of 745 in New York. It grades B− for health and C for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
24 notable people were born here, including James Bogardus and George Decker.
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