Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Horseheads grades B+ overall, 208th among New York's 745 graded towns, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. Crime is low: it reports less per resident than 84% of U.S. towns and it has 6 miles of trail. It also does better than most on health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 74% of the country. Its lowest everyday mark is in cost of living: the typical home is worth about $228K, 3.6 years of the Elmira metro’s $64K median household income. Horseheads’ trail density is 1.4 miles per square mile, against 0.4 in New York’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns. Holding Point Recreation Complex, at 34 acres with 1.4 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
Where Horseheads beats most towns.
Where Horseheads’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 Horseheads is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,277 in 1860, 19,485 in 2010. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1968 and 4 maps from 1895 on.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Horseheads, 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 Horseheads.
Horseheads draws workers from Horseheads and beyond, is healthier than towns with similar incomes and is safe by national standards but not by New York’s.
5.5 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Holding Point Recreation Complex | 1.4 mi | 34 |
| 2. Thorne Street Park | 0.7 mi | 19 |
| 3. Linear Park | 0.3 mi | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
3,913 jobs are based in Horseheads, 1.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 16.9 minutes, against 32.6 across New York.
Most working residents leave Horseheads for work: only 14% work in town. At 17 minutes, Horseheads’ average trip to work is where New York’s towns sit at 25 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes. Horseheads’ median household income is $61,000.
| Horseheads | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 6.5% | 12% | 11% |
| Median household income | $61,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 14% | 10% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
60% of Horseheads households own their home. Typical home values rose 7.4% in the year to September 2026.
| Horseheads | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,181 a month | $1,098 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 7.3 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 71% of New York’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 39 to 18 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Horseheads is 2.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Horseheads | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.7 per 1,000 residents | 7.6 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.2 per 1,000 residents | 0.8 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 85% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 5 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Horseheads.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 9,233 U.S. towns with household incomes like Horseheads’s, it is healthier than 95%, so its B+ isn’t only a matter of income.
28% of adults have obesity in Horseheads.
| Horseheads | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 37% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 81% | 79% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 16% |
| What stands out | Horseheads | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11.7% | 17.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9.9% | 14.5% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11% | 7.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Horseheads has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 16° and about 42 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Horseheads. Close and well known come first.
34 mi LakeSeneca Lake
15 mi State parkWatkins Glen State Park
12 mi MuseumCorning Museum of Glass400K visitors a year
37 mi LakeCayuga Lake
29 mi State parkTaughannock Falls State Park
26 mi Stadium & arenaSchoellkopf FieldSeneca Lake: RochesterNY, Public domain · Watkins Glen State Park: Flickr user: Peter Rivera Stamford, Connecticut https://www.flickr.com/people/ri, CC BY 2.0 · Corning Museum of Glass: User:Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cayuga Lake: The original uploader was Cornellrockey at English Wikipedia. Later versions we, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Taughannock Falls State Park: Michael C. Rygel, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Schoellkopf Field: Alex Sergeev, (www.asergeev.com) Originally uploaded by en:User:Cornell010, CC BY-SA 3.0
3 within 15 miles of the center of Horseheads
About 5 of every 100 Horseheads residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
6.3% of the town is conserved land, across 8 parks and preserves.
4 notable people were born in Horseheads.
Town in New York, United States
Horseheads is a town in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 19,412 at the 2020 census. The name of the town is derived from the number of bleached horses' skulls once found there. Horseheads is north of the city of Elmira, upon which it borders. There is a village named Horseheads within the town. It is part of the Elmira Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Horseheads.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horseheads | #208 | B+ | C | A− | B | B+ |
| Horseheads North | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Horseheads North isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Horseheads with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Horseheads grades B+ overall, better than 74% of U.S. towns and #208 of 745 in New York. It grades B+ for health, A− for safety 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.
