Rank

998of 3,144

Coos, New Hampshire

Score 6.61 / 10· population 31,372

Coös County, New Hampshire's northernmost, borders Canada, Maine and Vermont and holds most of the Presidential Range. Berlin, the only city, lost its pulp mill in 2006 and now has state and federal prisons; 19.5% of county workers held government jobs in 2020-2024, against 13.1% statewide. There is no sales tax, but Berlin's 2025 property tax rate of $33.60 per $1,000 was third highest in the state, and life expectancy was 73.9 years in 2020-2022, against 78.9 statewide.

Sources
  • Coös County is the northernmost county in New Hampshire and is bordered by Canada to the north, Vermont to the west and Maine to the east. cooscountynh.gov
  • The Presidential Range is located mostly in Coös County. nhmagazine.com
  • Berlin is the only city in Coös County. berlinnh.gov
  • The Berlin pulp mill closed permanently in 2006 under owner Fraser Papers; the city has a state prison (opened 1999) and a federal medium-security prison (opened 2012). clui.org
  • In the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates (table B24080), 2,665 of 13,650 employed workers in Coös County (19.5%) were local, state or federal government workers. api.censusreporter.org
  • In the same ACS 2020-2024 table, 98,575 of 749,856 New Hampshire workers (13.1%) were local, state or federal government workers. api.censusreporter.org
  • New Hampshire has no sales or income tax. nhbr.com
  • Berlin's 2025 residential property tax rate was $33.60 per $1,000 of assessed value, the third highest in New Hampshire after Charlestown and Keene. lamacchiarealty.com
  • Berlin's $33.60 rate was the third highest in New Hampshire as of January 2, 2026. citizenscount.org
  • County Health Rankings 2025 release: life expectancy was 73.9 years in Coös County and 78.9 years in New Hampshire. countyhealthrankings.org
  • The 2025 County Health Rankings release used 2020-2022 data for the life expectancy measure. countyhealthrankings.org

v4 — beta, 30 October 2026, sourced values

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Eleven factors

Government behavior

  1. Fraser Institute state ranking (state)8.3
  2. 2A (state)10.0
  3. GOP + LP vote for President5.7
  4. Sales tax10.0
  5. Property tax1.8

Environment

  1. Air quality5.6
  2. Floods / hurricanes2.2

Private behavior

  1. Homicide rate9.4
  2. Life expectancy3.5
  3. Government employees1.7
  4. Single-parent households6.4

Neighbors