Canton earns strong marks in mag’s ‘Top Places’ list

By Jay Turner

Boston magazine recently released its “definitive” ranking of the Top Places to Live in Greater Boston, and the town of Canton once again earned some very respectable scores, besting nearly 100 other eastern Massachusetts communities to come in at No. 43 overall.

This marks the second year in a row that the magazine has partnered with research firm DataJoe to evaluate all 141 cities and towns in the region, which it defines as any of those located at least partially within the boundary of Interstate 495.

According to Boston Executive Editor Brittany Jasnoff, the latest rankings are likely to “confirm some assumptions, challenge others, and might just change your mind about where you want to live.”

The 2026 list, which is featured in the magazine’s March 2026 issue, is topped by the city of Brookline, which climbed two spots to knock off last year’s No. 1 finisher, Cambridge. The higher education hub slid to the No. 4 position this year, with nearby communities Newton and Wellesley occupying the second and third spots.

Rounding out the overall top 10 were the towns of Lexington, Arlington, Andover, Needham, Bedford and Concord. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the neighboring Plymouth County towns of Halifax and Carver once again finished in the basement with rankings of 140th and 141st, respectively.

With its 43rd-place ranking, Canton managed to climb one spot from its placement on the 2025 list, and compared to its immediate abutters, it was squarely in the middle of the pack— ranking below the towns of Sharon (15th), Westwood (17th) and Milton (31st) but ahead of Norwood (71st), Dedham (72nd), Stoughton (87th) and Randolph (130th). It also performed well compared to other Norfolk County communities, ranking 10th-best out of 28 cities and towns.

Boston magazine’s rankings were powered by DataJoe’s CityScore system, which evaluated each location across eight categories: housing, safety, mobility, healthcare, entertainment, diversity, education, and employment.

Canton earned its strongest score in the diversity category, where it finished seventh in all of Greater Boston (and behind only Randolph among neighboring towns) due to its balanced demographic representation and high degree of linguistic diversity.

Canton did not, however, fare as well in the security category, where it ranked sixth among eight bordering towns and 107th out of 141 overall based on FBI Crime Data statistics measuring violent and property crimes per capita.

The results were more encouraging for Canton in the categories of mobility, where they ranked third among bordering towns and 46th overall, and education, where they finished fourth among bordering towns and 62nd overall.

The education scores were based on a few factors, including the magazine’s own list of “Top Public High Schools in Greater Boston.” In the most recent release of that list, Canton High ranked 65th out of 150 schools based on factors such as enrollment, class sizes, graduation rate, and performance on MCAS, SAT and Advanced Placement exams. Among neighboring towns, Sharon led the way on that list with a No. 16 ranking, followed by Westwood (27th) and Milton (58th). After Canton, Norwood was next with a ranking of 77th, followed by Dedham (82nd), Stoughton (83rd), and Randolph (124th).

To view the complete set of rankings and for more information about the methodology used, visit bostonmagazine.com. Click the chart below to enlarge.