What is Springfield's Life Score?

Springfield scores 38.8/100 (grade D), rank #361 of 387. Signature composite at the 7th percentile; stamps BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · cost DEAR · wages HIGH.

What pulls Springfield up or down?

Strongest: wages (82/100). Weakest: childcare (1/100). Profile mark WAGE-LED; dimension gap 82.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Springfield, MA

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade D, 7th percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

38.8
Life Score / 100: D
Grade (curved): #361
of 387 metros: 7%
composite percentile

View your shortlist

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Springfield is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #361 of 387 (38.8/100, grade D, 7th percentile). Carried by wages at 82/100; held back most by childcare at 1/100.

7th
composite percentile: #361
of 387 peers: 37th
cost dimension percentile: 82nd
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · signature composite

Springfield: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates

Springfield sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#361 of 387, 38.8/100, 7th percentile). Stamps BOTTOM · WAGE-LED; Childcare at 1/100 is the main drag; Wages (82/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/HIGH. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Springfield, MA ranks #361 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #244 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 96.1 (rent-RPP 75.8). BLS median salary $72,417, 191,450 jobs (Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Registered Nurses, Fast Food and Counter Workers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,734/mo (studio $1,219).

FBI UCR (MA): 309 violent, 1101 property/100K. NCES: 11.9:1 ratio, 4.2% charter. DOL infant childcare $20,571/yr. EPA: 41 Superfund sites (MA).

Where Springfield sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

39 7th percentile higher than 7% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 38.8 is built

Springfield's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 7.4 (19%) Wages 16.4 (42%) Rent 2.8 (7%) Safety 8.2 (21%) Schools 1.1 (3%) Childcare 0.1 (0%) Environment 2.8 (7%)

Dimension detail

How Springfield scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 37/100 (20%) Average

Wages 82/100 (20%) Above average

Rent 19/100 (15%) Below average

Safety 55/100 (15%) Average

Schools 11/100 (10%) Below average

Childcare 1/100 (10%) Bottom 10%

Environment 28/100 (10%) Average

Key Data Points

96.1

Cost Index (RPP)

$72,417

Avg Median Salary

$1,734

2BR Fair Market Rent

309

Violent Crime/100K (MA)

11.9:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$20,571

Infant Childcare/yr (MA)

Superfund Sites (MA)

191,450

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are MA state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Springfield With...

Springfield vs Pittsfield Compare → Springfield vs Worcester Compare → Springfield vs Barnstable Town Compare → Springfield vs Paducah Compare → Springfield vs Pocatello Compare → Springfield vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Springfield outranks 7% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#358	San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA	39.2	D
#359	Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA	39.3	D
#360	Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA	39.3	D
#361	Springfield, MA	38.8	D
#362	Elmira, NY	38.8	D
#363	Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ	38.7	D
#364	Clarksville, TN-KY	38.5	D

Quality vs. Affordability

Springfield, MA is bottom 7% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 37% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.

Springfield, MA (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

MA Metro Scores

Pittsfield, MA C- 41.4 Worcester, MA D 36.4 Barnstable Town, MA D 36.2 Amherst Town-Northampton, MA D 35.9 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH F 33.0

Read with Springfield

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Springfield (BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Elmira, NY

ABS(composite) peer at 38.8 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ

ABS(composite) peer at 38.7 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Clarksville, TN-KY

ABS(composite) peer at 38.5 (Δ 0.3 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Napa, CA

ABS(composite) peer at 38.4 (Δ 0.4 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 37/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

York-Hanover, PA (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 37/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Springfield, MA relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Springfield's bottom-third Life Score

Springfield scores 38.8/100 overall, but Wages (82.1) and Childcare (0.6) sit 81.5 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Wages is the strongest of Springfield's seven dimensions (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Childcare is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
Pittsfield is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Pittsfield

A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Springfield Life Score 38.8/100 · signature composite · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr