Methodology and sources
Town Chart compares 27,850 US towns using free public data. We do not collect any data ourselves. This page explains where the figures come from and how we turn them into scores.
Scores
Every town gets a score from 0 to 100 on each of the 21 topics below. For each measure we compare the town with every other town we track. A town that beats most others scores high, and a higher score is always better, even for measures where a smaller number is better (such as rent). A score of 60 or more is stronger than most towns, and under 40 is weaker. If we do not have figures for a topic, the town has no score for it instead of a guess.
Money and work
- Cost of living: How expensive everyday life is compared with the rest of the US, adjusted for local rent, plus the typical rent.
- Jobs and income: Typical household income, how many people are out of work, and how many live in poverty.
- A place that is growing: How much the number of people and the typical income have grown between the two most recent Census survey periods (each covers five years).
- Home internet and working from home: How many homes in the county have fast internet, and how many people work from home.
- State taxes: Taxes each state government collects per resident: all taxes, income tax and sales tax (US Census). These are amounts collected, not what you would personally pay.
- Property taxes: The typical property tax homeowners pay, and that tax as a share of the typical home price (US Census).
Home and neighborhood
- Housing affordability: Home prices compared with income, rent as a share of income, and the typical home price.
- Space and yard size: Rooms per home, how many homes are stand-alone houses, and how spread out people are. We do not have yard or lot sizes from free sources.
- Schools: The public schools located in the town: how many high-school students take AP/IB or college classes, how many students miss a lot of school, the graduation rate (older data) and class size. Child poverty is shown for context and is not scored. Towns with no high school or too little data are not rated. We do not have test scores yet.
- Diversity & community: The mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and the share of residents born outside the US.
Health and safety
- Health and medical care: Open hospitals in each town, family doctors, dentists and mental-health providers per person (county), and how many people have no health insurance.
- Long, healthy lives: How long people live and how many die early (county), and how many residents report fair or poor health or get regular checkups (CDC).
- Safety: Homicides in the county (County Health Rankings) and the state rate of violent crime (FBI, when available).
- Clean air and low disaster risk: Fine-particle air pollution (county) and the risk of floods, storms, fires and other disasters (county, from FEMA).
Getting around
- Short commute: Average commute time of people who travel to work.
- Walkability: How easy it is to get around on foot near the town center (connected streets, shops close to homes), and how many people walk or bike to work.
- Public transit: How often buses and trains run near the town center, and how far the nearest stop is.
- Airport access: Distance in a straight line to the nearest large airport with passenger flights.
Weather and lifestyle
- Dining and entertainment: Restaurants, cafes and bars for every 1,000 residents, and arts, entertainment and recreation businesses for every 1,000 residents, across the whole county (US Census).
- Weather: How close the average temperature and seasons are to the climate you pick, plus comfortable days.
- Pleasant weather for being outdoors: Days that are 65–85°F and dry, and hours of sunshine.
Rankings
The rankings list the top 25 towns in each state on one topic. Only towns with 1,000 or more people are ranked, and a state needs at least 10 such towns to have a list. Ties go to the larger town.
ZIP codes
We list 31,717 ZIP codes. A ZIP code is a mail delivery area, not a town border. We link a ZIP code to a town when its post office name matches the town, and otherwise to the closest town in the same county. A ZIP code that reaches into more than one county is shown under the county that holds most of it. To check a single address, use the US Postal Service lookup.
Where the figures come from
Limits you should know about
- Figures are estimates, often from surveys with margins of error, and may be several years old.
- Some measures describe a whole county or state, not the town. They are marked "county" or "state" where shown. Safety is the main example.
- Some towns are missing figures, for example weather. Those topics show "no figures yet".
- Records matched by name or by distance can be matched wrongly.
- Nothing here is advice. Check the facts that matter to you with official sources before you decide where to live. See the disclaimer and terms.
Corrections
Found a mistake or a missing town? Tell us on the contact page.