Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Clayton is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, 422nd of 745 graded towns in New York, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is schools: its schools rank ahead of 67% of New York towns. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $227K, 3.4 years of the Watertown metro’s $66K median household income. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 92% of U.S. towns, with 6 places on the National Register. 11% of the land in Clayton is conserved, where New York’s towns sit at 5.2% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. The biggest park or preserve is French Creek Wildlife Management Area, at 2,249 acres.
Where Clayton beats most towns.
Census counts: 3,990 in 1840, 5,153 in 2010. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1864 and 3 maps from 1900 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Clayton is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Clayton, 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 Clayton.
Clayton gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and has commutes shorter than most of New York.
Clayton’s risk rating from FEMA stands at 14 of 100, below both the New York town median (31 of 100) and the median of U.S. towns (44 of 100). Nearly four fifths of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by cold waves at 5%. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Clayton after 3 declared disasters, most recently in 2017.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The public schools here belong to the Thousand Islands Central School District. Its one school is below. Clayton’s only public school teaches 243 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardino Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 243 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
Walkers can cover 32 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. Clayton’s trail network density comes in at 0.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. French Creek Wildlife Management Area | — | 2,249 |
| 2. Canoe-Picnic Point State Park | — | 72 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The Watertown weather station, 19 miles away, records that 116 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 98% of U.S. towns.
July afternoons reach 80° and January nights drop to 11°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The average commute for its 1,599 working residents takes 25.7 minutes, against 32.6 across New York.
Half of commuters travel less than 16 miles. Clayton: nearly a quarter of working residents work locally. It had 1,306 jobs in 2023, up 240 from 2013. The top destinations are Watertown (18%), Alexandria (6%) and Orleans (5%).
| Clayton | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 24% | 10% | 8% |
| Work from home | 5.5% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $90,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
On the CDC’s 32 measures, Clayton is ahead of New York on 2 and behind on 5. Just over two in five adults sleep under 7 hours in the town.
| Clayton | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 17% | 16% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 37% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 33% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 21% | 23% |
| What stands out | Clayton | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 13.4% | 17.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 11.9% | 14.5% |
| More adults with obesity | 38% | 28.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The share of adults 25 and older in Clayton who hold a bachelor’s degree or more: 35%. People 65 and older are 22% of residents (18% statewide). 4,539 people lived in Clayton by the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate, 4.7% fewer than in 2020.
| Clayton | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 22% | 20% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 35% | 32% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 21% | 20% | 22% |
| Median age | 42.7 years | 43 years | 40.5 years |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3 points. Across New York, 51.2% of residents are women. Among residents 65 to 74, 61% are men (NY 47%).
| Clayton | NY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 13.3% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.2% | 9.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.5% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.1% | 14.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 9.5% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 8.6% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 18.4% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 14.5% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.8% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7.6% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 25.1% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 18% | 14.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 13.9% | 8.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 15.9% | 22.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 19.4% | 17.9% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 4,500, single groups can be off by several points
None within 15 miles of Clayton; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Clayton residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
6 places in Clayton on the National Register of Historic Places.
Town in New York, United States
Clayton is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 5,153 at the 2010 census. The town is named after John M. Clayton, a federal political leader from Delaware. The town contains a village also named Clayton. Both are northwest of Watertown. The village of Clayton, nearby Cape Vincent, and Alexandria Bay are popular tourist destinations on the New York mainland side of the Thousand Islands region.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Clayton.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clayton | #422 | B− | C | — | B+ | B |
| Orleans | #480 | C+ | B | — | C+ | B− |
| Lyme | — | — | B− | — | B+ | B+ |
| Thousand Island Park | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Brownville | #416 | B− | B | — | B− | B |
| Cape Vincent | — | — | C+ | — | B+ | B |
Lyme and Cape Vincent have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Clayton, Orleans, Lyme, Brownville and Cape Vincent report no FBI crime data of their own. Thousand Island Park isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Clayton with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Clayton grades B− overall, better than 46% of U.S. towns and #422 of 745 in New York. It grades B for health and B+ 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.
2 notable people were born here, including Charles E. Bohlen and Danforth E. Ainsworth.
