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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-CHELSEA-MA · Chelsea, MA 39,460 pop · income 53rd pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Chelsea
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chelsea on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Holyoke · lowest
51,892
Holyoke · lowest
51,892 median HH income
30.9% of the leader · rank #1
Charleston · near
72,208
Charleston · near
72,208 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #2
Oelrichs · near
72,212
Oelrichs · near
72,212 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #3
Sappington · near
72,213
Sappington · near
72,213 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #4
Chelsea · this city
72,220
Chelsea · this city
72,220 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #5
Harrisville · near
72,232
Harrisville · near
72,232 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #6
Severna Park · highest
168,091
Severna Park · highest
168,091 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Chelsea on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 39,460.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Chelsea - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Chelsea lands in the 53rd percentile for household income and the 24th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
53rd
percentile, household income
83rd
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
24th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Chelsea, MA
Chelsea is a small city in Massachusetts, home to 39,460 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Chelsea report a median income of $72,220 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 16.3%. Typical homes in Chelsea are valued around $476,500, and the median resident age is 34.5 years. 22.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 61.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 70 residential building permits were authorized in Chelsea (Rapid Growth), up 46% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2414.7 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,261 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Massachusetts's average monthly utility costs around $330 (state average). Commute times here average 30.3 minutes, with 46.4% driving alone and 9.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 78.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Chelsea's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chelsea, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Chelsea growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -413 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 70 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 22.0% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
What does the journey to work look like in Chelsea?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 46.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 30.3 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Chelsea?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Braintree (38,762 residents, $125,305 income); Westfield (40,673 residents, $82,847 income); Holyoke (37,949 residents, $51,892 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rosenberg, TX (39,467 residents); Issaquah, WA (39,472 residents); Lakewood Ranch, FL (39,434 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Chelsea?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$72,220
Home value
$476,500
Value / income
6.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Chelsea?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2414.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1435.8
Violent rate
978.9
Total reported rate
2414.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 16.3% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
F
City profile score · Chelsea, MA
27/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Household income C-
$72,220
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
105.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime F
979 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Chelsea profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,220
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 22.0%
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.3%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 979 /100k
Where Chelsea sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Chelsea's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Chelsea highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Chelsea, MA (this city): home $476,500, crime 2,415/100k
Rosenberg, TX : home $218,600, crime 1,720/100k
Dover, DE : home $248,500, crime 7,082/100k
Carol Stream, IL : home $308,700, crime 780/100k
Braintree, MA : home $623,200, crime 1,405/100k
Westfield, MA : home $295,500, crime 998/100k
Holyoke, MA : home $255,300, crime 5,273/100k
Woburn, MA : home $641,800, crime 1,142/100k
Marlborough, MA : home $485,400, crime 1,458/100k
Fitchburg, MA : home $295,500, crime 1,831/100k
How does Chelsea compare to other US cities?
Where Chelsea sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value83% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety24% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Massachusetts and the picture shifts: Chelsea ranks #141 of 149 Massachusetts cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chelsea against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Massachusetts only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Massachusetts-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Chelsea near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chelsea ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chelsea only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#185 of 233
21st percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#127 of 240
47th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#13 of 247
95th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#226 of 247
9th percentile in Massachusetts
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Massachusetts only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
53rd percentile nationally for median household income · 24th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Chelsea's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Chelsea's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Chelsea's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$476,50017th percentilemore affordable than 17% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Chelsea's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,478 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,061 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.6×, Chelsea sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,478 of 15,516 and #3,061 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$72,220Chelsea, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chelsea, MA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Chelsea, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
39,460
Median Income
$72,220
Median Home Value
$476,500
Median Age
34.5
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Labor force participation
61.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2414.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
978.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1435.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Chelsea's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
40,543 residents
2021
39,594 residents
2022
39,536 residents
2023
39,568 residents
2024
40,174 residents
2025
40,130 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
70
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
70
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
48
0
48
$7.5M
2020
54
0
54
$9.2M
2021
77
0
77
$12.9M
2022
63
0
63
$10.5M
2023
59
0
59
$9.9M
2024
70
0
70
$11.9M
Permit volume increased 46% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
30.3 minutes
Drive Alone
46.4%
Carpool
15.2%
Public Transit
20.3%
Walk
5.7%
Work from Home
9.6%
Other
2.8%
Based on 18,232 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Massachusetts statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $330
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Massachusetts at $330 (electricity about $160 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are Massachusetts statewide averages, not a meter reading for Chelsea. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Massachusetts's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.8 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Chelsea is $2,261/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Massachusetts statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 78.8 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Massachusetts statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Chelsea sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chelsea compares to similar-size Massachusetts cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.