Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMA-FRANKLIN-MA · Franklin, MA 33,067 pop · income 93rd 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 Franklin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Franklin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Salisbury · lowest
56,402
Salisbury · lowest
56,402 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #1
Ball Pond · near
142,727
Ball Pond · near
142,727 median HH income
65.1% of the leader · rank #2
Oakhurst · near
142,727
Oakhurst · near
142,727 median HH income
65.1% of the leader · rank #3
The Hills · near
142,750
The Hills · near
142,750 median HH income
65.1% of the leader · rank #4
Franklin · this city
142,788
Franklin · this city
142,788 median HH income
65.1% of the leader · rank #5
Winding Cypre… · near
142,819
Winding Cypre… · near
142,819 median HH income
65.1% of the leader · rank #6
Lexington · highest
219,402
Lexington · highest
219,402 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 Franklin 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: 33,067.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Franklin - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Franklin places in the 93rd percentile for household income and the 90th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
93rd
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
90th
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: Franklin, MA
Massachusetts's Franklin is a small city, with 33,067 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Franklin brings in $142,788 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.2%. Home values in Franklin run a median of $567,100, and the median resident age is 42.1 years. 56.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 79 residential building permits were authorized in Franklin (Construction Slowdown), down 71% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Franklin reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 382.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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). Natural-hazard exposure scores 78.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Franklin'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Franklin, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Franklin?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Needham (32,059 residents, $212,241 income); Lexington (34,085 residents, $219,402 income); Randolph (34,683 residents, $103,129 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dover, NH (33,070 residents); Bethel Park, PA (33,070 residents); Salisbury, MD (33,080 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Franklin?
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 382.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 83% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
How far does income reach against housing in Franklin?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.2%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 56.4% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Franklin?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
3.3%
Work from home
21.5%
Drive alone
67.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 18,055 workers age 16+.
Is Franklin growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,632 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 79 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+5.0%
2025 estimate
33,955
2020 estimate
32,323
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Top-decile income · poverty 4.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
B-
City profile score · Franklin, MA
69/100
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 A+
$142,788
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A
56.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime B
95 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B
4.2%
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.
Franklin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 94/100 (A+) · $142,788
Bachelor's+ share: 89/100 (A) · 56.4%
Violent crime: 72/100 (B) · 95 /100k
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.2%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Franklin sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Franklin'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 - Franklin highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Franklin, MA (this city): home $567,100, crime 383/100k
Dover, NH : home $398,500, crime 834/100k
Bethel Park, PA : home $258,700, crime 690/100k
Salisbury, MD : home $217,500, crime 3,960/100k
Helena, MT : home $355,100, crime 3,096/100k
Needham, MA : home $1,146,000, crime 699/100k
Lexington, MA : home $1,147,900, crime 387/100k
Randolph, MA : home $463,500, crime 1,135/100k
Norwood, MA : home $613,500, crime 880/100k
Watertown, MA : home $737,600, crime 2,012/100k
How does Franklin compare to other US cities?
Here's how Franklin stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income93% higher than other cities
Home value88% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety90% 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: Franklin ranks #25 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 Franklin 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 Franklin near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Franklin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Franklin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#33 of 233
86th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#97 of 240
60th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#110 of 247
55th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#69 of 247
72nd 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
93rd percentile nationally for median household income · 90th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Franklin's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Franklin'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 Franklin's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$567,10012th percentilemore affordable than 12% 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
Franklin's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,626 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,963 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.0×, Franklin sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,626 of 15,516 and #1,963 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$142,788Franklin, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Franklin, 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 Franklin, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)56.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
33,067
Median Income
$142,788
Median Home Value
$567,100
Median Age
42.1
Poverty Rate
4.2%
Labor force participation
67.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
56.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
382.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
94.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
287.7
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
Franklin's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
32,323 residents
2021
33,109 residents
2022
33,183 residents
2023
33,302 residents
2024
33,781 residents
2025
33,955 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
79
housing units authorized
Single-Family
51
detached homes
Multifamily
28
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
269
74
195
$42.2M
2020
248
84
164
$40.8M
2021
300
98
202
$49.0M
2022
254
89
165
$42.4M
2023
41
8
33
$10.5M
2024
79
51
28
$18.1M
Permit volume decreased 71% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.2%
Carpool
4.7%
Public Transit
3.3%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
21.5%
Other
1.6%
Based on 18,055 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 Franklin. 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 Franklin 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 Franklin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Franklin 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.