New Bedford, MA vs Fall River, MA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
New Bedford spends 19.3% more per capita than Fall River ($7,964/person difference). New Bedford, MA has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (D, 49/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $123 | $165 |
| Income Tax | $5 | $0 |
| Intergovernmental | $7,480 | $5,430 |
| Charges & Fees | $1,982 | $1,459 |
| Other | $4,106 | $4,494 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $252 | $265 |
| Highways & Roads | $886 | $0 |
| Education | $31,923 | $28,175 |
| Public Welfare | $708 | $581 |
| Health | $255 | $178 |
| Hospitals | $610 | $602 |
| Parks & Recreation | $315 | $211 |
| Housing | $2,315 | $2,452 |
| Sewerage | $99 | $127 |
| Utilities | $887 | $1,773 |
| Other | $10,966 | $6,887 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.