QoL Rank
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New York

New York has a quality of life score of 51/100 (C, average) and ranks #24 of 51 states. Its strongest category is safety (70) and its weakest is cost of living (19). Its top-rated larger counties are Ontario County, Saratoga County, Genesee County.

  • Safety: 70
  • Cost of living: 19
  • Education: 64
  • Quality of life: 49

Key figures: violent crime 378.7 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $1,621 a month; median home value $423,800; median household income $82,052; life expectancy 79.4 years.

Counties in New York, best first

  1. Ontario County 71
  2. Saratoga County 71
  3. Genesee County 68
  4. Livingston County 65
  5. Wyoming County 64
  6. Steuben County 63
  7. Essex County 62
  8. Putnam County 62
  9. Nassau County 62
  10. Clinton County 62
  11. Schuyler County 61
  12. Tioga County 61
  13. Wayne County 61
  14. Lewis County 61
  15. Suffolk County 61
  16. Warren County 60
  17. Otsego County 60
  18. Herkimer County 60
  19. Rensselaer County 60
  20. Franklin County 60
  21. Onondaga County 60
  22. Madison County 59
  23. Jefferson County 59
  24. Monroe County 58
  25. Seneca County 58
  26. Tompkins County 58
  27. Albany County 58
  28. Westchester County 57
  29. Allegany County 57
  30. Oneida County 56
  31. Erie County 56
  32. Cayuga County 56
  33. Orleans County 56
  34. Oswego County 55
  35. Schoharie County 55
  36. Broome County 54
  37. Dutchess County 54
  38. Columbia County 54
  39. Cortland County 54
  40. Rockland County 53
  41. Niagara County 53
  42. Schenectady County 53
  43. Fulton County 52
  44. Ulster County 52
  45. Delaware County 52
  46. Hamilton County 52
  47. Chautauqua County 52
  48. Washington County 51
  49. Cattaraugus County 50
  50. St. Lawrence County 50
  51. Orange County 50
  52. Chemung County 50
  53. Yates County 50
  54. Chenango County 49
  55. Montgomery County 49
  56. Greene County 49
  57. New York County 48
  58. Sullivan County 47
  59. Queens County 46
  60. Richmond County 44
  61. Kings County 42
  62. Bronx County 31

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources