Albany, the state capital · Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0How New York stacks up
No state has longer commutes than New York: the average trip to work takes 32.6 minutes. Massapequa Park and Garden City rank near the top of the country for home ownership; New York City and Buffalo sit near the bottom. The overall grade: C, a score of 32 that ranks 35th.
Each subject puts the official state figure beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
28th of 51B−46/100 About average for crime. Highlands ranks first of 3,410 U.S. towns for safety. Measured by the FBI, violent crime here comes to 368 per 100,000 residents, 12% above the national figure. The town measure covers 73% of residents; many places have no police force of their own.
Counting property crime too (property + 4 × violent, the weighting our town grades use): 21st highest.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, state estimate 2025.
Measure: reported crime per resident over the engine’s three crime years (property + 4 × violent), as in our Safety grades. 127 New York towns of 10,000+ against 3,410 nationally. Covers 73% of residents of New York’s 10,000+ towns.
Crime gathers in the larger cities
In Colonie and Ithaca, property crime rather than violence puts them in the quarter reporting the most crime; violent crime there is below the national middle. Its safest larger towns are Lewisboro (#2), Shawangunk (#6) and Cornwall (#11), ranked against every U.S. town of 10,000+. At the other end are New York City, Buffalo and Rochester, in the quarter of U.S. towns reporting the most crime per resident.
| State | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | 42% | 0% | |
| Rhode Island | 37% | 0% | |
| New Jersey | 35% | 20% | |
| Pennsylvania | 29% | 37% | |
| Maine | 29% | 15% | |
| New York | 9% | 76% |
A big gap in the town figures
Each town’s figure is built from its own department’s FBI reports, so towns with gaps sit out rather than being estimated. Here the towns counted hold 73% of residents of towns of 10,000+. Tonawanda, Orangetown and Mount Pleasant are among 14 towns with too few years reported. Hempstead, Brookhaven and Islip are among 99 places that report no crime of their own; county or state police patrol them, and their crimes aren’t counted by town. Among its neighbors, Massachusetts counts the most (96%) and New Jersey the least (83%).
Schools
14th of 51B+74/100 Strong results in the classroom. At $34,607 a pupil (1st), its 27th-place results lag what that money buys elsewhere. Compared with 31% nationally, 31% of its 4th and 8th graders test Proficient. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Scarsdale its best at #27 of 5,230.
On-time graduation, 87.2% (25th highest), weighs equally with test results in the grade.
It spends $34,607 per pupil, highest (context only; spending isn’t graded).
Source: NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024, public schools; EDFacts graduation rates; Census school finance.
Measure: graduation rate and test results, averaged; each district’s state-test proficiency is put on the NAEP yardstick (its result ÷ the state average × the state’s NAEP proficiency) so districts compare across states. 240 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,230 nationally.
Cost of living
43rd of 51C−16/100 Costs run high. New York City and Hempstead weigh on the town measure; 78% of residents live in bottom-quarter places. Compared with $3,119 nationally, the typical tax bill here is $6,582.
Against income, home values rank 13th highest: 4.9 times the median household’s.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: our cost-of-living score: home value, rent and tax bill against area income, plus the share paying 30%+ for housing. 240 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Health
18th of 51B+66/100 A little healthier than average. Compared with 19% nationally, 18% of adults here report fair or poor health. Its standout is Scarsdale, #2 in the country for health.
Source: CDC PLACES 2025 release (BRFSS model estimates).
Measure: our health score: seven CDC PLACES measures (general, physical and mental health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, inactivity). 239 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,218 nationally.
Housing
33rd of 51C+36/100 Very different towns at each end. Home ownership stands at 54%, the 2nd lowest rate of the 50 states and D.C. Its towns run the full range: Garden City and Lewisboro rank near the top of the country, New York City and Buffalo near the bottom. Its standout is Massapequa Park, #7 in the country for home ownership.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: share of occupied homes that are owner-occupied. 240 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Natural hazards
3rd of 51A+96/100 Low risk, town after town. Inland flooding drives 83% of the $88 a year FEMA expects natural hazards to cost per $100,000 of buildings (4th lowest). Only Maryland puts more residents in the nation’s lowest-risk quarter of towns. Its standout is Sweden, #3 in the country for hazard risk.
Federal major-disaster declarations, 2015–2025: 13, 23rd most.
Share of expected building damage: inland flooding 83%, hurricane 7%, earthquake 5%.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (Dec. 2025): expected annual building loss over building value, all census tracts; FEMA disaster declarations.
Measure: FEMA National Risk Index: expected yearly building loss from 18 natural hazards, as a share of building value. 240 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,239 nationally.
Commute
45th of 51D12/100 Time to work runs long. New York ranks last in the country on this measure: the average trip to work takes 32.6 minutes. 72% of residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them New York City and Hempstead. New York City is the exception, with commutes in the slowest quarter of U.S. towns.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: average one-way commute of the town’s workers. 240 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Growth
40th of 51C−22/100 Slow growth. New York grew 4.2% between 2010 and 2020, against 7.4% for the country. Only Kiryas Joel (#137 of 5,079) makes the national top quarter; 2% of residents live in such towns.
New homes permitted in 2025: 1.8 per 1,000 residents (5th fewest).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2020 decennial counts; Census building permits.
Measure: population change between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. 239 New York towns of 10,000+ against 5,079 nationally.
How New York compares to its neighbors
Next to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, it comes out ahead on natural hazards and behind on safety and housing.
| New York | New Jersey | Pennsylvania | Connecticut | Massachusetts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C 3235th of 51 | A− 7613th of 51 | A 887th of 51 | B+ 6817th of 51 | B+ 7016th of 51 |
| Safety | B− 4635th official · 9% in top towns | A 946th official · 35% in top towns | A 8816th official · 29% in top towns | A 922nd official · 28% in top towns | B+ 7426th official · 29% in top towns |
| Schools | B+ 7427th official · 20% in top towns | A+ 1002nd official · 38% in top towns | A 8812th official · 38% in top towns | A 944th official · 35% in top towns | A+ 981st official · 39% in top towns |
| Cost of living | C− 1648th official · 5% in top towns | D 851st official · 3% in top towns | B 5833rd official · 43% in top towns | D 1049th official · 2% in top towns | D 647th official · 1% in top towns |
| Health | B+ 6620th official · 22% in top towns | A− 8412th official · 41% in top towns | B 6227th official · 23% in top towns | A 889th official · 41% in top towns | A 8610th official · 41% in top towns |
| Housing | C+ 3650th official · 21% in top towns | B 5840th official · 30% in top towns | A 9017th official · 26% in top towns | A− 7834th official · 30% in top towns | B− 5047th official · 23% in top towns |
| Natural hazards | A+ 964th official · 74% in top towns | B 5624th official · 10% in top towns | A− 7811th official · 39% in top towns | C 2830th official · <1% in top towns | A 869th official · 53% in top towns |
| Commute | D 1251st official · 17% in top towns | D− 049th official · 1% in top towns | C 3036th official · 15% in top towns | C− 1837th official · 6% in top towns | D 847th official · 7% in top towns |
| Growth | C− 2233rd official · 2% in top towns | C+ 3826th official · 12% in top towns | D 844th official · 9% in top towns | D− 048th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 4022nd official · 9% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the state’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of residents of 10,000+ towns living in a nationally top-quarter town. Neighbor names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is the figure a state agency or federal survey publishes for the whole state, ranked against the other 49 states and D.C. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the state’s towns and cities of 10,000+, the share whose town falls in the national top quarter of 10,000+ towns. A state can do well on one and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the state’s standing among the 50 states and D.C.: the two measures’ percentiles averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. 100 is the best state, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, commute 10, housing 8, natural hazards 8, growth 8 (out of 100). D.C., a single city, is left out of the town measure and graded on official figures alone.
What it is not. A state figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a state is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out towns under 10,000 and towns missing data. Neither says anything about any one neighborhood.
Schools use the Nation’s Report Card because each state’s own tests are set to different bars. Hazards use FEMA’s expected building damage, the same loss rate behind our town hazard grades. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work