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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-LAWRENCE-MA · Lawrence, MA 88,297 pop · income 32nd pct · 174 tracts
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 Lawrence
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lawrence on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Greenville · lowest
50,564
Greenville · lowest
50,564 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #1
Dupo · near
57,899
Dupo · near
57,899 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #2
Lawrence · this city
57,903
Lawrence · this city
57,903 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #3
Union Star · near
57,907
Union Star · near
57,907 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #4
Tyonek · near
57,917
Tyonek · near
57,917 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #5
Paxton · near
57,917
Paxton · near
57,917 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #6
Newton · highest
184,989
Newton · highest
184,989 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 Lawrence 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: 88,297.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lawrence - the verdict
Nationally, Lawrence sits in the 32nd percentile for household income and the 48th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
32nd
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
48th
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: Lawrence, MA
88,297 people live in Lawrence, Massachusetts - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Lawrence households earn a median of $57,903 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.1%. Home values in Lawrence run a median of $393,500, and the median resident age is 32.6 years. 16.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 11 residential building permits were authorized in Lawrence (Construction Slowdown), down 48% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Lawrence reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1438.6 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). NOAA puts Lawrence's yearly average temperature at 50.9°F with 49.3 inches of precipitation per year.
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Massachusetts at 105.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,261 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Massachusetts's average monthly utility costs around $330 (state average). Commute times here average 21.9 minutes, with 67.2% driving alone and 5.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 78.8 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lawrence'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 climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lawrence, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Lawrence?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.9°F, with 49.3 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Massachusetts is 78.8 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lawrence?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Newton (88,504 residents, $184,989 income); Fall River (93,764 residents, $53,933 income); Somerville (80,549 residents, $127,056 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Santa Fe, NM (88,224 residents); San Leandro, CA (88,531 residents); Greenville, NC (88,540 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 Lawrence?
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 1438.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 37% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 174 Census tracts reveal inside Lawrence?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 174 Census tracts to this city.
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 Lawrence?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.1%, 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
$57,903
Home value
$393,500
Value / income
6.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Lawrence growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +417 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 11 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
+0.5%
2025 estimate
89,320
2020 estimate
88,903
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 29 public schools within the city match. 16.4% 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.
Matched public schools
29
Bachelor's degree+
16.4%
Poverty estimate
15.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Lawrence?
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 67.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.9 minutes.
Public transit
3.6%
Work from home
5.7%
Drive alone
67.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 41,229 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 15.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
F
City profile score · Lawrence, MA
23/100
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 F
$57,903
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
440 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Lawrence profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 31/100 (F) · $57,903
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.4%
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.1%
Violent crime: 20/100 (F) · 440 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Lawrence sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lawrence'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 - Lawrence highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Lawrence, MA (this city): home $393,500, crime 1,439/100k
Santa Fe, NM : home $411,500, crime 5,999/100k
San Leandro, CA : home $813,600, crime 4,472/100k
Greenville, NC : home $213,100, crime 3,367/100k
Santa Barbara, CA : home $1,466,400, crime 2,458/100k
Champaign, IL : home $199,700, crime 2,781/100k
Bloomington, MN : home $346,200, crime 3,776/100k
Newton, MA : home $1,202,500, crime 648/100k
Fall River, MA : home $357,800, crime 2,135/100k
Somerville, MA : home $899,400, crime 1,920/100k
New Bedford, MA : home $324,400, crime 1,712/100k
Lynn, MA : home $472,600, crime 1,745/100k
Quincy, MA : home $598,100, crime 1,668/100k
How does Lawrence compare to other US cities?
Where Lawrence sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income32% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety48% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Massachusetts, Lawrence ranks #112 of 149 Massachusetts cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lawrence 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 Lawrence near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lawrence ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lawrence only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#214 of 233
8th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#175 of 240
27th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#16 of 247
94th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#238 of 247
4th 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
32nd percentile nationally for median household income · 48th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lawrence's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lawrence'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 Lawrence's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$393,50023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
Lawrence's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,583 of 15,516
More affordable than 6% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#638 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.8×, Lawrence sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,583 of 15,516 and #638 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$57,903Lawrence, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lawrence, 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 Lawrence, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
88,297
Median Income
$57,903
Median Home Value
$393,500
Median Age
32.6
Poverty Rate
15.1%
Labor force participation
62.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1438.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
439.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
998.9
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
50.9°F
Annual Precipitation
49.3"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
29
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lawrence's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
88,903 residents
2021
88,437 residents
2022
88,324 residents
2023
88,899 residents
2024
89,493 residents
2025
89,320 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
11
housing units authorized
Single-Family
11
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
21
7
14
$2.2M
2020
16
6
10
$1.7M
2021
19
9
10
$2.1M
2022
14
10
4
$1.8M
2023
15
9
6
$1.8M
2024
11
11
0
$1.6M
Permit volume decreased 48% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.9 minutes
Drive Alone
67.2%
Carpool
13.6%
Public Transit
3.6%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
5.7%
Other
6.9%
Based on 41,229 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 Lawrence. 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lawrence 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.