You can learn a surprising amount about a small town from your kitchen table. One evening with the right free tools will tell you whether a town deserves a visit, and what to ask when you get there.
Grab a notebook or open a spreadsheet. Write the town's name, county and state at the top, and work down this list. Note the county: a lot of small-town information is kept at the county level.
1. The basics: who lives there
Start with the Census Bureau's QuickFacts. It shows population, age, income, home values, commute times and more. It covers every state and county, plus cities and towns with more than 5,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026).
Many small towns are smaller than that. About 76% of the roughly 19,500 incorporated places in the U.S. had fewer than 5,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 estimates). For those towns, use data.census.gov, whose community profiles cover more than 100,000 geographies, from states down to towns and ZIP codes (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026). Look up the county in QuickFacts as well.
What to look for: Is the population growing or shrinking? What share of residents are over 65, or under 18? What do homes cost compared with where you live now?
2. Prices: what your money is worth
Our income tool uses the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities for 2024 to show what your income is worth in the rural part of a state. For the data behind it, see BEA's Regional Price Parities page.
3. How rural is the county?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural-Urban Continuum Codes give every county a number from 1, a county in a metro area of 1 million people or more, to 9, a nonmetro county with an urban population under 5,000 that isn't next to a metro area (USDA Economic Research Service, 2023). Our article on small towns, suburbs and exurbs explains the codes.
4. Crime: start with the FBI, then call
The FBI's Crime Data Explorer lets you look up crime reported by individual police departments and sheriff's offices. Read it with care:
- Agencies report their data voluntarily (FBI, 2026).
- The FBI's annual tables by agency include only agencies that sent in 12 months of complete data, so a small department with gaps can be missing for a year (FBI, 2025 data).
- In a small town, a handful of incidents can swing the numbers from one year to the next.
- The FBI has a long-standing policy against ranking places on crime data alone.
Then call the police department or sheriff's office and ask what kinds of calls they get most. Read the local paper's police reports for a few weeks, too.
5. Schools: report cards and school search
Federal law requires every state to publish an online report card for its schools, with test results in reading, math and science, graduation rates, absenteeism, teacher qualifications and more. The U.S. Department of Education keeps a list of every state's report card site.
To find the schools in and around a town, use the National Center for Education Statistics' public school search and private school search.
The book's advice still applies once you visit: tour each school, picture your child there, and go to a game to meet the parents.
6. Hospitals and doctors
Medicare's Care Compare lets anyone find and compare hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other providers, with maps. Note how far the nearest hospital is, and where the nearest larger one is. Our retirement checklist has good questions to ask.
7. Internet at a real address
Pick a few addresses from real estate listings and look them up on the FCC's National Broadband Map. It shows the providers that report they can serve each location, and the speeds they offer (FCC, 2026).
8. Flood risk
On FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, you can look up the flood map for any address. Check the same houses you looked up for internet.
9. Property taxes
Search online for the county assessor and look for a property or parcel search. Look up a few homes in your price range and note the assessed values and recent tax bills. If there's no search online, call the office. While you have someone on the line, ask whether the county offers a homestead or senior exemption and how to qualify.
10. Local news and community groups
The local newspaper, even a small weekly, is the best window into a town. Read a month of it: the front page, letters to the editor, city council and school board stories, police reports and classifieds.
Then look for the town's community groups on social media, the town's own website, and the agendas and minutes from recent council meetings. You'll learn what people argue about, which often tells you more than what they brag about.
11. The chamber of commerce
Check the chamber's website for an events calendar and a business directory, then pick up the phone. The book suggests the chamber of commerce, a real estate broker and old-timers as good sources of ideas for your first visit.
Keep score
Before you close the laptop, give the town a quick grade on each item: people, prices, crime, schools, health care, internet, flood risk, taxes and local life. Write one line about anything that worried you. Those lines become your questions for the visit.
What the internet can't tell you
No website will tell you how it feels to walk down Main Street on a Tuesday night, or whether the neighbors wave. When a town passes your evening of research, it's time to plan a visit.
Our guide to choosing a town can help you compare your finalists, and the town type quiz can help you decide what kind of town to look for in the first place.
Frank and Dave's free book has a chapter on choosing a small town, with the pros and cons of each type. Get your copy here.