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In Rhode Island, Even the Loneliest Town (Block Island) Sits 17 Miles From the Nearest 10,000+ City

By Marko Visic·Published 13 May 2026·Rank #48 of 50 states·↑ All 50 states

Block Island, RI — population 777, Washington County — is the most isolated inhabited place in Rhode Island. The nearest city of 10,000+ residents is Westerly, RI, sitting 17 straight-line miles away. Rhode Island has 38 towns under 10,000 residents; Block Island is the most isolated among them.

Map: Block Island, RI (Rhode Island's loneliest inhabited place) and its 5 nearest cities of 10,000+ residents. The brick-red ring shows the empty zone in which no qualifying city exists; the nearest, Westerly, sits on its edge 17 miles away.The brick-red dot marks Block Island, the most isolated inhabited place in Rhode Island. Up to 5 green dots mark the nearest qualifying cities (population 10,000+), each labelled with name and straight-line distance. The brick-red dashed circle traces the empty zone — radius equal to the distance to the very nearest qualifying city. Wakefield, RI18 MINarragansett, RI18 MIMystic, CT24 MINewport, RI25 MIWesterly, RIBlock IslandRHODE ISLAND 17 MIsimplemaplab.com / studies / most-remote-places
Block Island (red dot) and the nearest 10,000+ city, Westerly, RI (green dot), separated by 17 straight-line miles.
17 mi
straight-line distance from Block Island to Westerly, RI
777
year-round residents of Block Island (Census 2020)
6 mi
average distance to nearest anchor across Rhode Island's 38 small towns
#48
of 50 states ranked by their loneliest town's isolation
Open a radius around Block Island → /tools/map-radius-tool · Block Island, RI · 50 mi
The link opens the SimpleMapLab Map Radius Tool with a 50-mile circle drawn around Block Island. Try expanding the radius to see how far you have to look before encountering any 10,000+ city — the answer is roughly 17 miles in the direction of Westerly.

Why this happened

In a state as dense as Rhode Island, "loneliest town" is a relative title. Block Island holds it at just 17 miles from Westerly — a comfortable half-hour drive in most of the country, but the longest drive between any Rhode Island town and a qualifying city. Block Island's 777 residents are the closest thing the state has to small-town America.

Rhode Island's 5 most isolated towns

The top 5 most-isolated inhabited places in Rhode Island, sorted by distance to the nearest 10,000+ city.

#TownPop.Distance to nearest 10K+Nearest city
1Block Island77717 miWesterly, RI
2Hope Valley4,99811 miWesterly, RI
3Rockville12410 miJewett City, CT
4Wyoming1,9129 miWakefield, RI
5Chepachet7,5879 miSmithfield, RI

How Rhode Island compares

The states ranked closest to Rhode Island on this metric. Click any for the dedicated breakdown.

#47 Connecticut
Lakeville · 18 mi to the nearest 10K+ city
#49 New Jersey
Fortescue · 12 mi to the nearest 10K+ city
#50 Delaware
Bethany Beach · 9 mi to the nearest 10K+ city
#46 Massachusetts
Provincetown · 23 mi to the nearest 10K+ city
#45 Maryland
Tylerton · 24 mi to the nearest 10K+ city

Draw your own radius

Open a 50-mile circle around Block Island →

Try the 100-mile radius to see whether a major city falls inside — for Block Island, it doesn't, because the nearest qualifying city (Westerly, RI) sits 17 miles away.

More about Rhode Island

See the full breakdown of Rhode Island's counties at /states/rhode-island/counties — population, area, median income, and county seat for every county, plus a labeled printable map. The companion study 100-mile radius around Rhode Island's capital measures the share of Rhode Island's population that lives within day-trip distance of the capitol — an inverse framing of the isolation question this page poses.

Methodology (brief)

We aggregate the US Census ZCTA dataset by postal city, treating any (postal city, state) pair with ≥ 50 residents as a town. Anchor cities are places with ≥ 10,000 residents. For every Rhode Island town below the anchor threshold, we compute the straight-line distance to every anchor city in the US (cross-state distances count). The town with the largest minimum distance is Rhode Island's loneliest. Full methodology on the hub page.

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). The Loneliest Towns in America: Rhode Island. Part of the Most Remote Inhabited Places study. Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/studies/most-remote-places/rhode-island. CC-BY 4.0.