Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some subjects shine; others lag. Its weakest is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $374K, 3.8 years of the Kiryas Joel metro’s $98K median household income. Health is its strong suit — CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 92% of the country. Put together, the subjects come to a C+ overall, ranking 449th of 745 in New York. That leaves it better than 43% of U.S. towns. Pleasant Valley has 6 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Innisfree and Newcomb-Brown Estate. The town’s rent at the middle of the market is $1,898 a month, against $1,098 a month in New York’s towns and $1,185 a month across U.S. towns. Pleasant Valley’s average trip to work is 33 minutes, above both the New York town median (25 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes).
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · National Register of Historic Places.
Where Pleasant Valley beats most towns.
Census counts: 2,419 in 1830, a low of 1,160 in 1920, 9,799 in 2020. The archive holds 3 old photos and papers going back to 1872 and 5 maps from 1893 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 Pleasant Valley is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Pleasant Valley. Close and well known come first.
Big draw27 mi MuseumUnited States Military Academy
4 mi National Historic SiteHome of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site102K visitors a year
7 mi National Historic SiteVanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site295K visitors a year7 mi MuseumFranklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
26 mi LakeCandlewood Lake
28 mi Stadium & arenaMichie StadiumUnited States Military Academy: USMA Public Affairs Office, Public domain · Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site: Crunch, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site: Daderot, Public domain · Candlewood Lake: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain · Michie Stadium: John Pellino, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Pleasant Valley, 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 Pleasant Valley.
Pleasant Valley has less food insecurity than most of New York, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of New York (mostly inland flooding).
Taconic Hereford Multiple Use Area, at 759 acres with 20.1 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. 25 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves. Also worth knowing: the density of trails in Pleasant Valley is 0.8 miles per square mile.
| Pleasant Valley | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.8 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 4.7% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Taconic Hereford Multiple Use Area | 20.1 mi | 759 |
| 2. Salt Point Recreation Park | — | 12 |
| 3. Pleasant Valley Memorial Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. The Arlington Central School District runs its public schools. The 3 public schools in Pleasant Valley teach 999 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Road/D'Aquannis Intermediate SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades 3–5 | Grades 3–5 | 354 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with New York is food insecurity: 9.5% of its 6,900 adults worry about having enough food, against 17.2% statewide.
The share of adults in Pleasant Valley who smoke cigarettes: 11%. This New York town beats the New York average on 14 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. Two figures for adults locally: 19% get no exercise outside work, 12% report frequent physical distress.
| Pleasant Valley | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 33% | 35% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 25% | 25% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 14% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 19% |
| What stands out | Pleasant Valley | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.5% | 17.2% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.9% | 7.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.3% | 7.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
For most workers, Pleasant Valley is a place to come home to: only 6% work in town. Employers in Pleasant Valley added 245 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 1,982. Its middle household income is $102,000. The top destinations are Poughkeepsie (14%), New York (13%) and Poughkeepsie (8%).
| Pleasant Valley | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $102,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 15% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.5% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Summer afternoons peak near 85° in July, and January nights bottom out around 17°; snowfall runs to about 58 inches a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 84% of New York towns, with expected losses of about $363 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA hazard score for Pleasant Valley comes to 62 of 100. Since 1981, Pleasant Valley has seen 47 flood insurance claims paid out. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 76% come from inland flooding and 11% from hurricanes. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Pleasant Valley after 6 declared disasters, most recently in 2021.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
By age, Pleasant Valley looks like New York: each broad group is within 4 points. In Pleasant Valley, 40% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more. For Pleasant Valley, the median age is 44.8 years.
| Pleasant Valley | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 40% | 32% | 29% |
| Median age | 44.8 years | 42.9 years | 40.5 years |
| Under 18 | 19% | 20% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 21% | 20% | 18% |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3.5 points. Across New York, 51.2% of residents are women.
| Pleasant Valley | NY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.5% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.9% | 9.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.3% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.9% | 14.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.7% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.9% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12.3% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.5% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.8% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 27.3% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.8% | 14.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.7% | 8.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.4% | 22.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 21% | 17.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
For households in Pleasant Valley, the share who live in a home they own is 72%.
| Pleasant Valley | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,898 a month | $1,098 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 75% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
5 within 15 miles of the center of Pleasant Valley
About 8 of every 100 Pleasant Valley residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New York.
Where Pleasant Valley’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
6 places in Pleasant Valley on the National Register of Historic Places.
8 notable people were born in Pleasant Valley.
Town in New York, United States
Pleasant Valley is a town in Dutchess County, within the Hudson Valley of New York, United States. The population was 9,799 at the 2020 census. The town is centrally located in the county, northeast of the city of Poughkeepsie. U.S. Route 44 passes through the town.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Pleasant Valley.
All 5 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its C+; Poughkeepsie (B−) is closest.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Valley | #449 | C+ | C− | — | C+ | A |
| LaGrange | #338 | B | C− | — | B− | A |
| Clinton | #392 | B− | D | — | C+ | A |
| Poughkeepsie | #406 | B− | D | C | B | A− |
| Washington | #165 | A− | C− | — | A− | A |
| Salt Point | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hyde Park | #290 | B | C | A | C | A− |
Pleasant Valley, LaGrange, Clinton and Washington report no FBI crime data of their own. Salt Point isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Pleasant Valley with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Pleasant Valley grades C+ overall, better than 43% of U.S. towns and #449 of 745 in New York. It grades A for health and C+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. The typical home is worth about $375,000, 29% below the New York typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
8 notable people were born here, including James Kirke Paulding and Gilbert Dean.
