Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,379.
Donegal Township’s best subject grades are an A for cost of living, an A+ for history, and an A− for civic life; its weakest is a D for walkability. On history, just 103 of Pennsylvania’s 1,749 towns do better. The biggest place to walk is State Game Lands Number 232, 2,393 acres with 4.2 miles of trail. On civic life, just 153 of Pennsylvania’s 1,717 towns do better. Donegal Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Donegal Township beats most towns.
Montgomery HouseWhere Donegal Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Donegal Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 192 in 1870, a peak of 258 in 1940, 102 in 2020. The archive holds 8 old photos and papers going back to 1930 and 3 maps from 1907 on.
5 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Donegal Township, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Donegal Township.
The share of working residents in Donegal Township who work locally: 2.4%. 3.3% of residents live below the poverty line in the town, below both Pennsylvania’s towns (7.6%) and U.S. towns (9.6%). Since 2013, Donegal Township has added 75 jobs, to 407 in 2023. The median commute is under 18 miles.
| Donegal Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 39 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.3% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.4% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Flood insurance has paid out on 4 claims in Donegal Township since 2003. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in three quarters of U.S. communities. 87% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The range runs from 21° on a January night to 84° on a July afternoon, with about 15 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Trails total 7.3 miles in 3 parks and preserves. In Donegal Township, the density of trails is 0.2 miles per square mile, where Pennsylvania’s towns sit at 0.4 and U.S. towns at 0.4.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. State Game Lands Number 232 | 4.2 mi | 2,393 |
| 2. McGuffey Community Park | 0.6 mi | 40 |
| 3. State Game Lands Number 245 | — | 53 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Nearly a fifth of adults binge drink in Donegal Township. Among adults in the town, 38% have obesity and 17% smoke cigarettes.
| Donegal Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 16% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 35% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 17% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 80% | 79% | 79% |
| What stands out | Donegal Township | PA |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with arthritis | 35.7% | 30.4% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.8% | 7.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.8% | 8.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Donegal Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw32 mi Stadium & arenaAcrisure Stadium
32 mi LandmarkFort Duquesne
32 mi Stadium & arenaPNC Park
11 mi MuseumMeadowcroft Rockshelter
36 mi Theme parkKennywood
33 mi Stadium & arenaPPG Paints ArenaAcrisure Stadium: Fo2grfr, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Duquesne: Sébastien Paquin, CC BY-SA 3.0 · PNC Park: alpineinc, CC BY 2.0 · Meadowcroft Rockshelter: Lee Paxton, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kennywood: Ski2007 of English Wikipedia, Public domain · PPG Paints Arena: Jleedev, CC BY-SA 4.0
5 within 15 miles of the center of Donegal Township
About 6 of every 100 Donegal Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Pennsylvania.
5 places in Donegal Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
5 towns share a border with Donegal Township.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donegal Township | — | — | A | — | B+ | B− |
| Independence Township | — | — | A+ | — | B | B− |
| Blaine Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Buffalo Township | — | — | B− | — | B+ | C+ |
| West Finley Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| East Finley Township | — | — | A− | — | B+ | C+ |
Donegal Township, Independence Township, Buffalo Township and East Finley Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Donegal Township, Independence Township, Buffalo Township and East Finley Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Blaine Township and West Finley Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Donegal Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
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