Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Veteran gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $170K, 2.7 years of the Elmira metro’s $64K median household income. It grades B− overall, ranked 355th of 745 in New York. On the plus side, it is healthier than 76% of U.S. towns. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. Among 758 New York towns, just 6 have a lower share of working residents who work in town than Veteran. The biggest park or preserve is Mark Twain State Park, at 470 acres.
Where Veteran beats most towns.
Where Veteran’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 Veteran is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,616 in 1830, a low of 1,470 in 1910, 3,363 in 2020. The archive holds 2 old photos and papers going back to 1869 and 2 maps from 1953 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Veteran, 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 Veteran.
Veteran is healthier than towns with similar incomes, sends most of its workers to Horseheads and beyond and has property taxes about half the New York norm.
Against the 10,002 U.S. towns with household incomes like Veteran’s, it is healthier than 94%, so its A− isn’t only a matter of income. Its widest gap with New York is no health insurance: 5% of those 18–64 have no health insurance, against 7.9% statewide.
29% of adults have obesity in Veteran, below both New York’s towns (33%) and U.S. towns (35%). 34% of Veteran adults sleep under 7 hours. Veteran beats the New York average on 6 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5.
| Veteran | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 33% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 37% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 81% | 79% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 21% | 23% |
| What stands out | Veteran | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 5% | 7.9% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11.2% | 17.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.5% | 7.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Veteran has 120 jobs for its 1,235 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 23.2 minutes, against 32.6 across New York.
Most working residents leave Veteran for work: only 1% work in town. At $65,000, Veteran’s median household income is where New York’s towns sit at $82,000 and U.S. towns at $80,000. The top destinations are Horseheads (18%), Elmira (15%) and Corning (8%).
| Veteran | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $65,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 7.5% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Veteran | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.3% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mark Twain State Park | 0.8 mi | 470 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Adults 18 to 34 are 15% of residents (23% statewide); people 65 and older are 24% of residents (18% statewide). 26% of residents are under 18 in Veteran. Veteran has lost 5% of its people since 2020, down to 3,179 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Veteran | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 26% | 20% | 22% |
| Median age | 38 years | 43 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 37% | 32% | 29% |
45% women, 55% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.5 points. Across New York, 51.2% of residents are women. Among residents 75 and older, 65% are men (NY 40%).
| Veteran | NY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 18% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.8% | 9.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 1.3% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.3% | 14.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 6.7% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15.1% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.8% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 13% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 8.8% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 22.2% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.4% | 14.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 13.8% | 8.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.8% | 22.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 17.1% | 17.9% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,200, single groups can be off by several points
Veteran has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 16° and about 42 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 55% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Veteran.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The median property tax bill is $3,176, against $6,582 across New York, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Veteran’s median rent is $787 a month.
| Veteran | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 85% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $787 a month | $1,103 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Veteran. Close and well known come first.
10 mi State parkWatkins Glen State Park
29 mi LakeSeneca Lake
31 mi LakeCayuga Lake
15 mi MuseumCorning Museum of Glass400K visitors a year
23 mi State parkTaughannock Falls State Park
21 mi Stadium & arenaSchoellkopf FieldWatkins Glen State Park: Flickr user: Peter Rivera Stamford, Connecticut https://www.flickr.com/people/ri, CC BY 2.0 · Seneca Lake: RochesterNY, Public domain · Cayuga Lake: The original uploader was Cornellrockey at English Wikipedia. Later versions we, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Corning Museum of Glass: User:Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Taughannock Falls State Park: Michael C. Rygel, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Schoellkopf Field: Alex Sergeev, (www.asergeev.com) Originally uploaded by en:User:Cornell010, CC BY-SA 3.0
2 within 15 miles of the center of Veteran
About 1 of every 100 Veteran residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
Town in New York, United States
Veteran is a town in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 3,363 at the 2020 census. The name of the town honors the first settler, a veteran of two wars. The town is on the county's northern border and is north of Elmira. Veteran is part of the Elmira Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Veteran.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veteran | #355 | B− | B+ | — | B− | A− |
| Horseheads | #431 | B− | C | — | B | B+ |
| Catlin | — | — | C | — | B− | B+ |
| Catharine | — | — | A− | — | C+ | B− |
| Montour | — | — | B | — | C+ | B− |
| Horseheads North | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pine Valley | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cayuta | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Catlin, Catharine and Montour have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Veteran, Horseheads, Catlin, Catharine and Montour report no FBI crime data of their own. Horseheads North, Pine Valley and Cayuta aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Veteran with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Veteran grades B− overall, better than 55% of U.S. towns and #355 of 745 in New York. It grades A− for health and B− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $170,000, 68% 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 B+.
