The 50 Best Small Towns in America
A small town, for this ranking, is an incorporated municipality with a Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates) population of 500 to 24,999 — keyed by Census GEOID, with New England towns keyed to the county-subdivision record that is their municipal government, exactly as our New Jersey list keyed its towns. Census-designated places and unincorporated communities are not eligible, no matter how famous. We pooled 238 candidate towns from the published small-town canon (Travel + Leisure, World Atlas, Southern Living, Country Living) plus regional anchors, gated every one against that definition, and scored the 229 that passed on public schools (30%), safety (25%, banded from FBI UCR municipal offense data), household income and home values (25%, Census ACS), homeownership stability (10%, Census ACS), and a disclosed town-character judgment layer (10%). One more rule, new for a national list: no state may hold more than 3 of the 50 slots.
Scarsdale, New York takes #1, with Piedmont, California, Winnetka, Illinois, Orinda, California, and New Canaan, Connecticut behind it — municipalities where elite public schools, low offense rates, and top-band household numbers stack on the same composite. The gate is why some famous names are missing entirely: Montecito and Mystic are census-designated places, not municipalities; Ridgefield, Connecticut is over the population line at 25,109; and Telluride, Colorado was excluded rather than estimated when its Census median home-value cell came back suppressed. The state cap does its own visible work — Hinsdale, Illinois scored #12 in the uncapped model and is not on this list, because three Illinois towns scored higher. Twenty-five states are represented. Argue the placements all you want — every town here is a real municipality, named correctly, and earned its spot on the same numbers.
How this ranking was built — and what got cut
Eligibility was written before any scoring: an incorporated municipality (Census place with a functioning municipal government; New England towns count as municipalities) with ACS 2024 5-year population of 500–24,999, keyed by Census GEOID — place GEOID outside New England and New Jersey, county-subdivision (MCD) GEOID there, because that is the Census record of the municipal government, the same convention our New Jersey ranking used. Any town whose key ACS cells (population, median household income, median home value) were suppressed or missing was excluded, never estimated. Of 238 pooled towns, 9 failed the gate and 229 were scored on the published composite: schools 30%, safety 25%, wealth 25%, homeownership stability 10%, character 10%, with percentile bands rather than raw dollars so Census margins of error on small towns do not manufacture fake precision.
The exclusions are the credibility of the list, so they are printed, not buried. Telluride, Colorado and Calistoga, California were excluded on suppressed data — the ACS extract returned no median home value for either, and no town earns a score from a number we invented. Woodstock, New York is a census-designated place, not an incorporated municipality. Ridgefield, Connecticut (25,109), Bluffton, South Carolina (33,157), and Oxford, Mississippi (26,411) are over the population cap; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (350), Ephraim, Wisconsin (412), and Jerome, Arizona (231) fall under the 500 floor. And the names that never entered the pool at all — Montecito, Mystic, Ocean Grove, Incline Village, St. Simons Island, Sewanee — are CDPs or unincorporated places, however many best-small-town lists they headline.
The disclosed soft spots: the 3-per-state cap removed 13 towns that scored in the uncapped top 50, all named in our method report — Hinsdale, Illinois (#12 uncapped) is the sharpest case. This ranking also measures best to live, not best to visit: Carmel-by-the-Sea earns the highest character score in the pool (96) and misses the cut, because 60.1% owner-occupancy puts its stability percentile at 24.9. And the bottom of the list is a band, not a photo finish — ranks 45 through 50 span less than one composite point, from Anna Maria, Florida (81.64) to New London, New Hampshire (80.68).
The full Top 50
Scarsdale, NY
Piedmont, CA
Winnetka, IL
Orinda, CA
New Canaan, CT
Kenilworth, IL
Clyde Hill, WA
Glencoe, IL
Darien, CT
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ
Paradise Valley, AZ
San Marino, CA
Garden City, NY
Millburn, NJ
Bronxville, NY
Rumson, NJ
Medina, WA
Fox Chapel, PA
Sullivan's Island, SC
Mountain Brook, AL
Cohasset, MA
Duxbury, MA
Concord, MA
Lookout Mountain, TN
Bainbridge Island, WA
Isle of Palms, SC
Barrington, RI
East Greenwich, RI
Jamestown, RI
Hanover, NH
Park City, UT
Naples, FL
Davidson, NC
Hudson, OH
Midway, UT
Whitefish Bay, WI
Elm Grove, WI
Signal Mountain, TN
Sun Valley, ID
Rehoboth Beach, DE
Sanibel, FL
Wyoming, OH
Old Lyme, CT
Mariemont, OH
Anna Maria, FL
Breckenridge, CO
Wayzata, MN
Saugatuck, MI
Norwich, VT
New London, NH
How we rank
Ranked on schools, safety, income & home values (Census ACS), homeownership, and town character — 2026 composite.
Before any scoring, every candidate passes our existence gate: confirmed open, operating at the location listed, and showing recent activity. Anything closed, moved, or mislabeled is removed — no exceptions, no grandfathering. Weights and sources are published on our methodology page.
Notes & corrections
Places change — municipalities merge (rarely), districts reconfigure, and new Census estimates land every year. This list is re-verified against Census and state records before it is posted anywhere, and spot-checked on a rolling basis. If you spot a change we haven't caught, email [email protected] and we will correct the record publicly. If it's listed, it exists.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best small town in America?
Scarsdale, New York, ranks #1 with a composite of 93.65 — schools 97, safety 95, wealth 94.8 (a $250,001 top-coded median household income and a $1,800,700 median home value in the Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates), homeownership stability 95.0, and character 76. It leads a scored pool of 229 eligible municipalities, all ranked on the same published weights, with no state allowed more than 3 of the 50 slots.
What counts as a 'small town' in this ranking?
An incorporated municipality with a Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year population of 500 to 24,999, keyed by Census GEOID (place GEOID; county-subdivision GEOID in New England and New Jersey, where that is the municipal record). Census-designated places and unincorporated communities are not eligible, and a town whose key ACS cells are suppressed or missing is excluded rather than estimated. Of 238 pooled candidates, 229 passed the gate and were scored.
Why isn't Telluride on the list?
Data, not charm. The ACS extract returned no median home value (table B25077) for Telluride town, and our published rule excludes a town whose key Census cells are suppressed or missing instead of estimating them — the same rule that excluded Rockleigh from our New Jersey list. If a future ACS release publishes the cell, Telluride is re-gated on the same terms as every other town.
Why isn't Hinsdale, Illinois on the list? It scored higher than most of these towns.
The state cap. No state may hold more than 3 of the 50 slots, and Winnetka (#3), Kenilworth (#6), and Glencoe (#8) scored higher in Illinois. Hinsdale's uncapped composite was 91.09 — higher than most of the published list — and it is named as a state-cap casualty in our method report, along with the other 12 towns the cap removed. The cap is why 25 states are represented instead of five.
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