Best PlacesWesterly, RI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Westerly, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Westerly ranks 10,061st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Westerly
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.
Westerly's strengths and weaknesses
Where Westerly ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
Where Westerly ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,325 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Westerly
A household needs to earn about $134,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Westerly home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,418, 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 Westerly's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 Westerly
Westerly 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 Westerly.
Who works in Westerly, and how
Work in Westerly centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Westerly
Westerly has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 7 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Westerly and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Westerly, month by month
Westerly sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 68° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Westerly
The nearest airport, Westerly State, is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 60 miles away.
The best schools in and around Westerly
Schools across Westerly average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deans Mill SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Westerly Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Westerly High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Westerly school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Westerly 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 Westerly against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Westerly suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Westerly
Is Westerly a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Westerly ranks 10,061st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, walkability, and transit, and lowest on state finances and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Westerly expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $508,199. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $100,418 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Westerly safe?
Yes, Westerly is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $151 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Westerly?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 24. That works out to about 83 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of towns.
Is Westerly good for families?
Schools beat 56% of towns, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $1,325 a month.
Compare Westerly with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Westerly. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Westerly 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.
Westerly detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Westerly: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Westerly: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Westerly: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Westerly: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Westerly 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.