Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Swissvale's standout: it is among the most walkable places in the country. Overall it grades C, 847th of 1032 graded towns in Pennsylvania. Natural-hazard risk is low and 6% of its land is conserved. Its weakest subject is schools: its public schools trail 86% of Pennsylvania towns on state tests and graduation. Swissvale’s density of trails is 2.9 miles per square mile, against 0.4 in Pennsylvania’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns. On civic life, just 136 of Pennsylvania’s 1,717 towns do better. Swissvale has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Longfellow School.
Where Swissvale beats most towns.
Where Swissvale’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 Swissvale is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for schools (better than 14%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Carrie Blast Furnace Number 6 and 7 is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 1,716 in 1900, a peak of 16,488 in 1950, 8,624 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1917 and 4 maps from 1904 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Swissvale. Close and well known come first.
Big draw7 mi Stadium & arenaAcrisure Stadium
3 mi Theme parkKennywood
7 mi LandmarkFort Duquesne
7 mi Stadium & arenaPNC Park
6 mi Stadium & arenaPPG Paints Arena
in town City parkFrick ParkAcrisure Stadium: Fo2grfr, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kennywood: Ski2007 of English Wikipedia, Public domain · Fort Duquesne: Sébastien Paquin, CC BY-SA 3.0 · PNC Park: alpineinc, CC BY 2.0 · PPG Paints Arena: Jleedev, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Frick Park: Lee Paxton, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Swissvale, 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 Swissvale.
Swissvale is healthier than towns with similar incomes, has homes that are cheap against local pay and is mostly renters.
Walkers can cover 3.7 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. One park or preserve covers 18 acres in Swissvale.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Les Getz Memorial Park | 0.4 mi | 18 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its one school is below. Woodland Hills SD runs its public schools. Enrollment at Swissvale’s public school: 579 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dickson Prep STEAM AcademyLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 579 | D |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
Swissvale’s FEMA hazard score stands at 16 of 100, below both the Pennsylvania town median (30 of 100) and the median of U.S. towns (44 of 100). 73% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by cold waves at 16%. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Swissvale once, in 2004.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
25.9% of workers work from home, against 15.6% across Pennsylvania.
The top destinations are Pittsburgh (49%), Monroeville (3%) and West Mifflin (1%). In Swissvale, just over a quarter of workers do their job from home. Half commute less than 6 miles. The town’s typical household income stands at $60,000.
| Swissvale | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 26% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $60,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.6% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The range runs from 22° on a January night to 84° on a July afternoon, with about 25 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. Swissvale's reported crime rate is above Pennsylvania's. Also worth knowing: its violent crime rate stands at 3.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Swissvale | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 19.2 per 1,000 residents | 6.7 | 11.5 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 3.2 per 1,000 residents | 0.8 | 1.7 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
Only 48.9% of households own their home, against 69.3% across Pennsylvania.
The midpoint age in Swissvale is 38.1 years. Children under 18 are 17% of residents (21% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 26% of residents (22% statewide). For residents in the town, the share who are under 18 is 16%. 8,197 people lived in Swissvale by the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate, 5% fewer than in 2020.
| Swissvale | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 16% | 20% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 29% | 29% |
| Median age | 38.1 years | 43.2 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 18% | 21% | 18% |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3.8 points. Across Pennsylvania, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Swissvale | PA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 8.3% | 10.8% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.2% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.1% | 9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 19.9% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.6% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.6% | 11.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 11.9% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.8% | 11.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.6% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 2.7% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.2% | 32.9% | 26% |
| Some college | 23.1% | 15.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.6% | 8.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 21.7% | 20.9% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 19.8% | 14.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Against the 9,014 U.S. towns with household incomes like Swissvale’s, it is healthier than 74%, so its B− isn’t only a matter of income.
On the CDC’s 26 measures, Swissvale is ahead of Pennsylvania on 2 and behind on 1. Among adults here, 40% sleep under 7 hours. In Swissvale, 18% of adults binge drink, and 16% smoke cigarettes.
| Swissvale | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 38% | 36% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 18% | 16% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 17% | 14% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| What stands out | Swissvale | PA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 7.3% | 8.8% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 6.6% | 7.4% |
| Fewer adults seeing a dentist | 60.2% | 64.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 1.9 years of the Pittsburgh metro’s $76K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 92% of Pennsylvania towns; that ratio is one input to its B− for cost of living.
Swissvale: nearly half of households live in a home they own. On the market here: a median 34 days to sell. Sellers in Swissvale got 100.6% of the asking price, typically.
| Swissvale | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 49% | 78% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,136 a month | $1,114 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
15 within 15 miles of the center of Swissvale
About 7 of every 100 Swissvale residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Pennsylvania.
2 places in Swissvale on the National Register of Historic Places.
9 notable people were born in Swissvale.
Borough in Pennsylvania, US
Swissvale is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, 9 miles (14 km) east of downtown Pittsburgh. Named for a farmstead owned by James Swisshelm, during the industrial age it was the site of the Union Switch and Signal Company of George Westinghouse. The population was 8,624 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Swissvale.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swissvale | #847 | C | B− | — | D | B− |
| Pittsburgh | #928 | C− | B− | D | C | B+ |
| Edgewood | #711 | B− | C− | C | D | A+ |
| Braddock Hills | — | — | A− | — | D | C |
| Rankin | — | — | A+ | — | D | D− |
| Munhall | #653 | B− | A | B− | C | C+ |
| North Braddock | #883 | C | A | — | D | C− |
Braddock Hills and Rankin have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Swissvale, Braddock Hills, Rankin and North Braddock report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Swissvale with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Swissvale grades C overall, better than 33% of U.S. towns and #847 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades B− for health and D for schools. Schools 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−.
9 notable people were born here, including Michael F. Doyle and Jack George.
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