Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Rye grades B overall, 353rd of 745 graded towns in New York. It is among the most walkable places in the country. It is healthier than 84% of U.S. towns. What holds it back is price: the typical home is worth about $689K, 7 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 91% of U.S. towns, with 9 places on the National Register. Rye’s rent at the middle of the market is $2,066 a month, above both New York’s towns ($1,098 a month) and U.S. towns ($1,185 a month). Its National Register listings include William E. Ward House and US Post Office-Port Chester. Rye's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 82% of U.S. towns.
Where Rye beats most towns.
Its founding year, 1660, comes before those of 97% of the New York towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 3,964 in 1910, 16,592 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1835 and 4 maps from 1944 on.
9 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Rye is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 2%), so the B overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Rye. Close and well known come first.
Big draw21 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw24 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw24 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw21 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw23 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw30 mi MuseumUnited States Military AcademyCentral Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Madison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · United States Military Academy: USMA Public Affairs Office, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Rye, 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 Rye.
Walkers can cover 3.9 miles of trail in 11 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Crawford Park, at 36 acres. Rye’s trail network density stands at 0.5 miles per square mile.
| Rye | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 4.5% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. John Lyon Park | 0.9 mi | 22 |
| 2. Columbus Park | 0.6 mi | 12 |
| 3. Florence Park | 0.6 mi | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The public schools here belong to the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District. Three of its 14 schools are shown below, with the reason for each. 6 public schools serve Rye, with 2,803 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Chester Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 956 | C− |
| Port Chester Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,549 | A |
| Blind Brook High SchoolTop results in townGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 402 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
27% of Rye adults have obesity. This New York town does better than the New York average on 7 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 3.
| Rye | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 21% | 23% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 34% | 35% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 33% | 35% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| What stands out | Rye | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with COPD | 4.7% | 6% |
| Fewer adults who have had a stroke | 2.8% | 3.4% |
| More uninsured adults | 12.3% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expect July afternoons of 85° and January nights of 24°, with about 33 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most people who work leave Rye to do it: just 13% work in town. The town’s median household income comes in at $108,000. The top destinations are New York (33%), Greenwich (6%) and White Plains (4%). The share of workers in Rye who do their job from home: 16%.
| Rye | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $108,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 16% | 12% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 13% | 10% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Nearly half of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Rye. Adults 35 to 64 are 43% of residents (39% statewide). In Rye, the median age is 39.6 years.
| Rye | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 49% | 32% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 15% | 20% | 18% |
| Median age | 39.6 years | 43 years | 40.5 years |
| Under 18 | 21% | 20% | 22% |
49% women, 51% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.6 points. Across New York, 51.2% of residents are women. Median age: women 42.6, men 37.8.
| Rye | NY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.8% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.5% | 9.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.2% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.2% | 14.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.3% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 15.2% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.1% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 7.5% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.3% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 15.9% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 18.7% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 10.1% | 14.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6% | 8.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 26.3% | 22.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 23.1% | 17.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 57% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 786 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Rye. Of the losses FEMA expects in the town, 77% come from inland flooding. Households in the town have drawn federal disaster aid in 4 declared disasters, most recently in 2020.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
26 within 15 miles of the center of Rye
About 6 of every 100 Rye residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New York.
9 places in Rye on the National Register of Historic Places.
22 notable people were born in Rye.
City in New York, United States
Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the New York City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, Rye had a population of 16,592. It received its charter as a city in 1942, making it the most recent such charter in the state. The city has an area of 5.85 square miles. Rye is notable for its waterfront, and two National Historic Landmarks (NHLs). The first NHL is the Boston Post Road Historic District, designated in 1993. It is also the only National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) in Westchester County, and includes the Jay Estate, the childhood home and final resting place of John Jay, a Founding Father and the first Chief Justice of the United States, Mars…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Rye.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rye | #353 | B | D− | — | B | A− |
| Rye Brook | #25 | A+ | D− | A | A+ | A+ |
| Harrison · Harrison | #72 | A | D− | — | A | A+ |
| Mamaroneck | #94 | A | D− | — | A | A+ |
| Port Chester | #467 | C+ | D− | B+ | C | B+ |
| Rye | #11 | A+ | D− | A+ | A+ | A+ |
| Mamaroneck | #138 | A− | D− | B+ | A | A |
Rye, Harrison and Mamaroneck report no FBI crime data of their own. Harrison and Harrison are one community, graded once. Compare Rye with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Rye grades B overall, better than 55% of U.S. towns and #353 of 745 in New York. It grades A− for health and B for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.
22 notable people were born here, including Jason Bateman and David Lee.
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