Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 11,748, settled in 1785.
Plattsburgh is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C+ overall, 474th of 745 graded towns in New York, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: residents are healthier than 59% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Its lowest everyday mark is in schools: its public schools trail 63% of New York towns on state tests and graduation. A typical home there costs about $180K, 2.5 years of the Plattsburgh area’s $71K median household income. 26% of working residents work locally in Plattsburgh, above both the New York town median (10%) and the median of U.S. towns (8%). Plattsburgh is home to Clinton Community College. On civic life, just 63 of New York’s 1,187 towns do worse.
Where Plattsburgh beats most towns.
| College | Students |
|---|---|
| Clinton Community College | 954 |
Where Plattsburgh’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 Plattsburgh is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Plattsburgh Bay is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 3,032 in 1860, 19,841 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1813 and 3 maps from 1913 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Plattsburgh, 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 Plattsburgh.
8,894 jobs are based in Plattsburgh, 1.8 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 18.5 minutes, against 32.6 across New York.
About one in 4 of Plattsburgh’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Plattsburgh is 19 minutes. Jobs based in Plattsburgh grew to 8,894 in 2023, 854 more than in 2013.
| Plattsburgh | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 7.6% | 12% | 11% |
| Median household income | $72,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Beekmantown Central School District. Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumberland Head Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 515 | B |
| Clinton-Essex-Warren-Washington BocesLargest public high schoolGrades K–12 | Grades K–12 | 237 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
27 miles of trail in 9 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Cadyville State Forest, at 367 acres.
| Plattsburgh | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 4.7% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Valcour Island Primitive Area | 1.7 mi | 165 |
| 2. Cadyville Recreation Park | 1.3 mi | 46 |
| 3. Cadyville State Forest | 0.6 mi | 367 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Plattsburgh has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. Plattsburgh’s July high is 80°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
18% of Plattsburgh adults report frequent mental distress. Plattsburgh beats the New York average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 34% of Plattsburgh adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Plattsburgh | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 37% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 32% | 33% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 21% | 23% |
| What stands out | Plattsburgh | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.1% | 7.9% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 11.9% | 14.5% |
| More adults with depression | 23.2% | 17.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 57% of U.S. communities. Since 1981, 22 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Plattsburgh.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
2 within 15 miles of the center of Plattsburgh
About 3 of every 100 Plattsburgh residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
35 notable people were born in Plattsburgh.
City in New York, United States
Plattsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the 2020 census. The population of the surrounding (and separately incorporated) Town of Plattsburgh was 11,886 as of the 2020 census, making the combined population of Plattsburgh to be 31,727. Plattsburgh lies just to the northeast of Adirondack Park, immediately outside of the park boundaries. It is the second largest community in the North Country region (after Watertown), and serves as the main commercial hub for the sparsely populated northern Adirondack Mountains. The explorer Samuel de Champlain was the first eve…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
9 towns share a border with Plattsburgh.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plattsburgh | #474 | C+ | B− | — | C+ | B |
| Schuyler Falls | #429 | B− | B | — | C+ | B+ |
| Morrisonville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cadyville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Beekmantown | #579 | C | B | — | C | B |
| Plattsburgh West | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Peru | #347 | B | C+ | — | B− | B+ |
| Saranac | #609 | C− | B | — | C | B− |
Plattsburgh, Schuyler Falls, Beekmantown, Peru and Saranac report no FBI crime data of their own. Morrisonville, Cadyville and Plattsburgh West aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Plattsburgh with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Plattsburgh grades C+ overall, better than 40% of U.S. towns and #474 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 B−.
35 notable people were born here, including Jean Arthur and Michael P. Anderson.
