WASHINGTON – Boston is one of the country’s best large cities when it comes to raising children, as are Manchester, N.H., Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, a study released Tuesday showed.

Other New England cities, including Hartford, Conn., and Providence, R.I., didn’t fare as well.

The study from Zero Population Growth, a nonprofit Washington-based group that studies population-related issues such as classroom overcrowding, ranked cities for “kid friendliness” based on population, health, education, public safety, economic and environmental indicators.

“It’s important that all of these be looked at individually,” said Brian Dixon, director of government relations. “It’s what are the problems in each city, and what can the people do in those cities to make them better.”

Boston – the only New England city among the 25 biggest cities studied – ranked 6th overall among cities with populations of over 2 million.

Boston won high marks for environmental quality, education and a drop in the infant mortality rate to 5.8 percent in 1998 from 10 percent in 1990. It was marked down for growing in population by 6.1 percent from 1998 to 2000, ahead of the 4.1 percent average growth for the nation and 4.9 percent average growth for large cities.

The organization said both rapid growth in population, and rapid decline, were viewed as negatives because either can result in problems, such as a dearth of services or – at the other end – an eroding tax base.

When it came to smaller cities, those with populations of 100,000 to 2 million, Stamford, Conn., ranked the highest of nine Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island cities. It ranked 10th out of the 140 cities in this category.

Stamford had 3 violent crimes per 1,000 people in 1999 – below the national average of 5 per 1,000 – and an unemployment rate of 2.7 percent in 1998, compared with a national rate of 4.5 percent.

The top ranked city in the smaller group was Burlington, Vt. Two other cities in northern New England – Portland, Maine, and Manchester, N.H., – were in the top 10.

The three cities in southern New England with the lowest rankings were Providence, Bridgeport, Conn., and Hartford.

Providence – which ranked 100th out of 140 – had a 15.1 percent population growth from 1998 to 2000 and increases in teen-age births, low birth-weight births and infant mortality from 1990-98. It drew negative marks for having too little park space and too few library resources for the community.

In Bridgeport – which ranked 103rd out of 140 – 18.8 percent of births in 1998 were to teen-agers, above the national average of 12.5 percent.

In Hartford – which ranked 117th out of 140 – 24.8 percent of births in 1998 were to teen-agers, the study said. Hartford also had 12 violent crimes and 72 property crimes per 1,000 people in 1999, compared with national averages of 5 per 1,000 and 37 per 1,000.

The data was drawn from government and private sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Association of Home Builders and the American Library Association.

The other New England cities and their rankings are:

. Lowell, Mass., 38th out of 140

. Waterbury, Conn., 41st out of 140

. Worcester, Mass., 52nd out of 140

. New Haven, Conn., 87th out of 140

. Springfield, Mass., 96th out of 140