Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 6,037, settled in 1828. Public schools that outperform most of Ohio.
Trash & recyclingFor most people who can afford it, yes. Waterville grades A overall, ranked 160th of 987 in Ohio. Its schools rank ahead of 93% of Ohio towns. The median household earns $104K and CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 87% of the country. The trade-off is money: the typical home is worth about $343K, 5.2 years of the Toledo metro’s $65K median household income. 47% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Waterville, where Ohio’s towns sit at 24% and U.S. towns at 29%. Waterville has 9 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Interurban Bridge and Columbian House. On civic life, just 137 of Ohio’s 1,560 towns do better.
Where Waterville beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Waterville Primary School | K–4 | 468 |
| Discovery Center | K | 35 |
Census counts: 382 in 1880, 6,003 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1879 and 3 maps from 1956 on.
9 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Ohio), ordered by how far Waterville is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Waterville, 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 Waterville.
Waterville has less tooth loss than most of Ohio and pairs an A for schools with high home prices, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Ohio (mostly inland flooding).
Its A for schools comes with a C− for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $343K.
Its public schools are run by the Anthony Wayne Local school district. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waterville Primary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–4 | Grades K–4 | 468 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within OH on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with Ohio is tooth loss: 6.9% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 15.3% statewide.
11% of adults smoke cigarettes in Waterville. Waterville beats the Ohio average on 21 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 15% of adults report frequent mental distress in Waterville.
| Waterville | Ohio towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 16% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 18% | 17% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 38% | 36% |
| What stands out | Waterville | OH |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 6.9% | 15.3% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.2% | 14.1% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.4% | 8.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The median property tax bill is $4,836, against $2,822 across Ohio, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Waterville’s median rent is $1,415 a month. The typical Waterville home is worth about $343,000, up 3.3% in a year, 39% above the Ohio typical home.
| Waterville | Ohio towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,415 a month | $943 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 77% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Jobs based here grew from 1,264 in 2013 to 1,668.
Most working residents leave Waterville for work: only 5% work in town. Jobs based in Waterville grew to 1,668 in 2023, 404 more than in 2013. 4.3% of Waterville residents live below the poverty line.
| Waterville | Ohio towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $104,000 | $75,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.3% | 9.1% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5% | 6.9% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Waterville has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 85°, January nights drop to 19° and about 37 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 91% of Ohio towns, with expected losses of about $439 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Waterville is 62 of 100. Since 1978, 33 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Waterville.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
| Waterville | Ohio towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.8% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Waterworks Park | 0.3 mi | 10 |
| 2. Farnsworth Metropark | 0.1 mi | 21 |
| 3. Towpath Trail | — | 16 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Waterville. Close and well known come first.
14 mi MuseumToledo Museum of Art340K visitors a year
6 mi LandmarkFort Meigs
11 mi Zoo & aquariumToledo Zoo
34 mi National park siteRiver Raisin National Battlefield Park134K visitors a year
15 mi MuseumImagination Station
16 mi MuseumNational Museum of the Great LakesToledo Museum of Art: Ɱ, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Meigs: Traveler100, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Toledo Zoo: DreamingKoala, CC BY-SA 4.0 · River Raisin National Battlefield Park: Notorious4life (talk), Public domain · Imagination Station: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0 · National Museum of the Great Lakes: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0
7 within 15 miles of the center of Waterville
About 3 of every 100 Waterville residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Ohio.
Where Waterville’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
9 places in Waterville on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in Ohio, United States
Waterville is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River. It is a suburb of Toledo. Its population at the 2020 census was 6,003.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Waterville.
| Town | OH rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterville | #160 | A | C− | A− | A | A |
| Waterville Township | #58 | A+ | C+ | — | A | A− |
| Middleton Township | #542 | B | C+ | — | B+ | B |
Waterville Township and Middleton Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Waterville with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Waterville grades A overall, better than 85% of U.S. towns and #160 of 987 in Ohio. It grades A for health, A− for safety and A for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
2 notable people were born here, including Lucky Wright and Andrea L. Hertzfeld.
