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-SWAMPSCOTT-MA · Swampscott, MA 15,209 pop · income 90th 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 Swampscott
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Swampscott on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Harper Woods · lowest
61,446
Harper Woods · lowest
61,446 median HH income
35.6% of the leader · rank #1
Swampscott · this city
128,964
Swampscott · this city
128,964 median HH income
74.8% of the leader · rank #2
North Bethesda · near
128,970
North Bethesda · near
128,970 median HH income
74.8% of the leader · rank #3
Winfield · near
128,980
Winfield · near
128,980 median HH income
74.8% of the leader · rank #4
Applewood · near
128,988
Applewood · near
128,988 median HH income
74.8% of the leader · rank #5
Kaysville · near
128,996
Kaysville · near
128,996 median HH income
74.8% of the leader · rank #6
Lynnfield · highest
172,484
Lynnfield · highest
172,484 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 Swampscott 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: 15,209.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Swampscott - the verdict
Nationally, Swampscott sits in the 90th percentile for household income and the 58th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
90th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
58th
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: Swampscott, MA
15,209 people live in Swampscott, Massachusetts - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $128,964 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.3%. Home values in Swampscott run a median of $690,800, and the median resident age is 45.3 years. About 61.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Swampscott reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1156.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,261 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $330 across Massachusetts, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Swampscott workers runs 27.1 minutes, with 57.0% driving alone and 23.0% working from home. 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 Swampscott'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 work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Swampscott, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Swampscott?
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 57.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.1 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Swampscott?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.3%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Swampscott?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Hudson (15,610 residents, $96,149 income); Longmeadow (15,724 residents, $144,639 income); Easthampton (16,103 residents, $72,925 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Harper Woods, MI (15,205 residents); Northview, MI (15,225 residents); Asbury Park, NJ (15,239 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 does the education layer cover for Swampscott?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 61.7% 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Swampscott?
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 1156.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1075.0
Violent rate
81.7
Total reported rate
1156.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
61.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$128,964
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B+
82 /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.
Swampscott profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 93/100 (A+) · 61.7%
Household income: 90/100 (A+) · $128,964
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.3%
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 82 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Swampscott sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Swampscott'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 - Swampscott highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Swampscott, MA (this city): home $690,800, crime 1,157/100k
Harper Woods, MI : home $143,600, crime 5,042/100k
Hudson, MA : home $457,400, crime 722/100k
Longmeadow, MA : home $425,800, crime 686/100k
Easthampton, MA : home $343,800, crime 670/100k
Abington, MA : home $516,300, crime 1,593/100k
Amesbury, MA : home $475,400, crime 670/100k
Lynnfield, MA : home $904,200, crime 955/100k
How does Swampscott compare to other US cities?
Where Swampscott sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income90% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety58% 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, Swampscott ranks #95 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 Swampscott 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 Swampscott near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Swampscott ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Swampscott only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#49 of 233
79th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#55 of 240
77th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#130 of 247
44th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#53 of 247
78th 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
90th percentile nationally for median household income · 58th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Swampscott's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Swampscott'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 Swampscott's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$690,8008th percentilemore affordable than 8% 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
Swampscott's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,391 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,761 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.4×, Swampscott sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,391 of 15,516 and #2,761 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
$128,964Swampscott, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Swampscott, 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 Swampscott, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)61.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,209
Median Income
$128,964
Median Home Value
$690,800
Median Age
45.3
Poverty Rate
3.3%
Labor force participation
64.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
61.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1156.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
81.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1075.0
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
5
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.1 minutes
Drive Alone
57.0%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
12.4%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
23.0%
Other
0.9%
Based on 8,027 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 Swampscott. 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 Swampscott 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 Swampscott sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Swampscott 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.