Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Sheridan is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C+ overall, ranked 485th of 745 in New York, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $87K. A typical home there costs about $193K, 3.3 years of the Jamestown area’s $58K median household income. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. On hazard risk, just 112 of New York’s 1,216 towns do better.
Where Sheridan beats most towns.
Where Sheridan’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 Sheridan is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,666 in 1830, 2,563 in 2020. The archive holds 3 old photos and papers going back to 1867 and 2 maps from 1954 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Sheridan, 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 Sheridan.
Sheridan has commutes shorter than most of New York, but it has little public open land.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 92% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 9 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Sheridan.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The average commute for its 870 working residents takes 24.2 minutes, against 32.6 across New York. Jobs based here grew from 368 in 2013 to 527.
Most working residents leave Sheridan for work: only 9% work in town. Since 2013, Sheridan has added 159 jobs, to 527 in 2023. The top destinations are Dunkirk (13%), Pomfret (11%) and Hanover (9%).
| Sheridan | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 7.5% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $87,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Sheridan has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. At 80°F, Sheridan’s July high is against 81°F in New York’s towns and 85°F across U.S. towns.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Sheridan beats the New York average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 15% of Sheridan adults report frequent physical distress, above both New York’s towns (14%) and U.S. towns (14%). 39% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Sheridan.
| Sheridan | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 14% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 37% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 25% | 25% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 11% | 12% |
| What stands out | Sheridan | NY |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 8.6% | 6% |
| More smokers | 14.8% | 11.3% |
| More adults with heart disease | 7.8% | 6.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Just 47 of its 23,760 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Sheridan itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.7 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. Among 740 New York towns, just 9 have a lower share of conserved land than Sheridan.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sheridan Bay Park | — | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Sheridan
About 3 of every 100 Sheridan residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
Town in New York, United States
Sheridan is a town in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 2,563 at the 2020 census. The town is on the county's northern border, east of Dunkirk.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Sheridan.
It grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Hanover (C) comes closest.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheridan | #485 | C+ | B− | — | B− | C+ |
| Hanover | #575 | C | B− | — | B− | C+ |
| Dunkirk | — | — | B− | — | D | C− |
| Pomfret | #612 | C− | C− | — | C+ | B |
| Silver Creek | #645 | C− | C+ | — | C+ | C+ |
| Arkwright | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Dunkirk has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Sheridan, Hanover, Dunkirk, Pomfret and Silver Creek report no FBI crime data of their own. Arkwright isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Sheridan with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Sheridan grades C+ overall, better than 38% of U.S. towns and #485 of 745 in New York. It grades C+ for health and B− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
2 notable people were born here, including Daniel Reed and John Cranston.