Best PlacesScituate, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Scituate, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Scituate ranks 3,623rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Scituate
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Scituate's strengths and weaknesses
Where Scituate ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$135,384 median, better than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
Where Scituate ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,514 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Short commute40.2 minutes each way, better than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 18% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Scituate
A household needs to earn about $235,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Scituate home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $135,384, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Scituate's effective rate of 1.01%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Scituate
Scituate runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Scituate.
Who works in Scituate, and how
Work in Scituate centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Scituate
Scituate has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Scituate and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Scituate, month by month
Scituate sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 56° | 48° | 41° |
| July | 82° | 74° | 66° |
| October | 64° | 56° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Scituate
General Edward Lawrence Logan International sits about 18 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 21.1 million passengers in 2025, with 199 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Scituate
Schools across Scituate average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wampatuck ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Jenkins Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Cushing ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gates Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
- Cohasset Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Cohasset High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Scituate High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Scituate school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Scituate measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Scituate against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Scituate
Is Scituate a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Scituate ranks 3,623rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and civic engagement, and lowest on childcare costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Scituate expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $872,714. The overall cost of living runs about 41% above the national average. Set against a $135,384 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Scituate safe?
Yes, Scituate is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $191 per resident a year.
Compare Scituate with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Scituate. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Scituate represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Scituate detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Scituate: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Scituate: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Scituate: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Scituate: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Scituate detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.