If you live in Central New York then you know we have our fair share of some really small towns. When I say small, I mean REALLY small! Personally, I think small towns are charming and have a variety of advantages. Yes, it's hard to keep anything private in a small town BUT if your mail gets accidentally delivered to someone else in town, no problem. Everyone in town knows where everyone else lives so your mail will find its way home. Also, need to borrow something from a neighbor? No one bats an eye at that. In addition, there's no doubt that people look out for each other in a small town and the town pride runs high. That's why if there's a fundraising event in a small town, almost everyone comes to it to lend support. Small town residents just tend to rally around each other when the chips are down which is the best thing of all.

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I keep all those great things in mind when I drive through our region's really small towns because I also can't help but think to myself, "Where do the people in this town work?" Some of these towns really are miles and miles away from a community where they can buy groceries and other things they may need.

Related to our area's small towns, City-Data.com created a list of New York State's smallest towns, in terms of population size and you won't be surprised that Delaware and Otsego County have some of the smallest ones. In order of the smallest (increasing in size), these local towns are on City-Data.com's list. If you want to see the full list, click here.

Andes - population 252
Laurens - 260
Davenport Center - 349
Franklin - 357
Gilbertsville - 384
Milford - 407
Hobart - 421
Sharon Springs - 534
Schenevus - 551
Morris - 571
Downsville - 617
Bovina - 633
Prattsville - 700
Afton - 818
Otego - 984
New Berlin - 990
Hancock - 993

I grew up going to school at Gilbertsville, NY which is definitely one of the smallest towns on the entire list. I only had 18 kids in my graduating class! Maybe I didn't have some of the advantages and choices associated with bigger school districts but because I went to a small school, I got to participate in anything I wanted to and since I wasn't great in sports but loved them, I was able to be on the teams of my choice in high school. Lucky me! Kids in bigger schools have to go through try-outs. No one gets turned away at a small school, otherwise, I would have been out of luck.

New York State certainly has its share of big cities but I feel that it's the small towns that make up the true heart of the state. Can you tell I'm a small-town gal?

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