Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Germantown’s best subject grades are an A− for health and civic life and an A for history; its weakest is a C− for cost of living. 10% of residents are under 18 in Germantown, against 20% in New York’s towns and 22% across U.S. towns. Only 10 of the 759 New York towns we compare have a higher median age than Germantown. Germantown is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 69% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings include German Reformed Sanctity Church Parsonage and Simeon Rockefeller House. Germantown has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Germantown beats most towns.
Census counts: 891 in 1820, 1,936 in 2020. The archive holds 15 old photos and papers going back to 1798 and 5 maps from 1895 on.
5 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Germantown is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Germantown. Close and well known come first.
6 mi MuseumOlana State Historic Site
25 mi National Historic SiteHome of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site102K visitors a year
11 mi WaterfallKaaterskill Falls
23 mi National Historic SiteVanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site295K visitors a year
32 mi TheatreTanglewood
29 mi MuseumNorman Rockwell MuseumOlana 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 · Norman Rockwell Museum: User:Rmrfstar, CC BY 2.5
Who provides power, water and the rest in Germantown, 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 Germantown.
On expected storm and flood damage, Germantown sits below 86% of U.S. communities. Expected losses in Germantown break down as 62% from inland flooding and 11% from tornadoes. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Germantown after 7 declared disasters, most recently in 2017.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its two schools are below. The Germantown Central School District runs its public schools. 2 public schools serve Germantown, with 452 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germantown Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 282 | B− |
| Germantown Junior-Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 7–12 | Grades 7–12 | 170 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
In Germantown, 30% of adults feel lonely, and 30% have obesity. This New York town beats the New York average on 9 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 3. 15% of Germantown adults report frequent mental distress.
| Germantown | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 17% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 33% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 33% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 37% | 36% |
| What stands out | Germantown | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11% | 17.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9.5% | 14.5% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.6% | 7.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Half of commuters travel less than 16 miles. Jobs based in Germantown fell to 596 in 2023, 68 fewer than in 2013. Most people who work leave Germantown to do it: just 13% work in town. The town’s median household income is $98,000.
| Germantown | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $98,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 6.8% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 13% | 10% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In July, afternoons reach 85°; in January, nights fall to 17°, and about 31 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Values rose 8.7% in the 12 months to September 2026. In Germantown, four in five households are owner-occupiers.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Across 4 parks and preserves: 3.5 miles of trail. The biggest park or preserve is Seward's Island, at 27 acres. The trail density for Germantown comes to 0.3 miles per square mile.
| Germantown | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.4% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Seward's Island | — | 27 |
| 2. Ernest R. Lasher Jr. Memorial Park | — | 1 |
| 3. Roe-Jan Kill Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
2 within 15 miles of the center of Germantown
About 4 of every 100 Germantown residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
Where Germantown’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
5 places in Germantown on the National Register of Historic Places.
Town in New York, United States
Germantown is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,936 at the 2020 census, down slightly from 1,954 in 2010. Germantown is located in the south-western part of the county along the east side of the Hudson River.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Germantown.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germantown | — | — | C− | — | B− | A− |
| Livingston | #700 | D | C− | — | C− | B |
| Clermont | — | — | C− | — | B+ | A− |
| Catskill | #629 | C− | C | — | C | B− |
Germantown and Clermont have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Germantown, Livingston, Clermont and Catskill report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Germantown with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes. That is 7.2 years of the area's median household income ($81,528 across the Hudson, NY 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−.
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