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-WALTHAM-MA · Waltham, MA 64,723 pop · income 86th 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 Waltham
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waltham on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Muncie · lowest
43,395
Muncie · lowest
43,395 median HH income
30.9% of the leader · rank #1
Yalaha · near
116,544
Yalaha · near
116,544 median HH income
82.9% of the leader · rank #2
Marlboro · near
116,549
Marlboro · near
116,549 median HH income
82.9% of the leader · rank #3
Waltham · this city
116,560
Waltham · this city
116,560 median HH income
82.9% of the leader · rank #4
Enumclaw · near
116,563
Enumclaw · near
116,563 median HH income
82.9% of the leader · rank #5
Cottonwood He… · near
116,583
Cottonwood He… · near
116,583 median HH income
82.9% of the leader · rank #6
Brookline · highest
140,631
Brookline · highest
140,631 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 Waltham 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: 64,723.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waltham - the verdict
Nationally, Waltham sits in the 86th percentile for household income and the 66th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
86th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
66th
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: Waltham, MA
Massachusetts's Waltham is a small city, with 64,723 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Waltham brings in $116,560 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.3%. Home values in Waltham run a median of $705,700, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. About 56.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 67.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 32 residential building permits were authorized in Waltham (Construction Slowdown), down 52% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Waltham reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 951.3 in FBI UCR data, below 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,261 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Massachusetts's average monthly utility costs around $330 (state average). Workers in Waltham report an average commute of 19.7 minutes, with 55.6% driving alone and 20.0% working from home. 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 Waltham'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waltham, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, 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
Is Waltham growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +847 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 32 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
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.
The NCES join finds 10 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Waltham?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 951.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waltham?
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.
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Malden (65,509 residents, $95,298 income); Brookline (62,822 residents, $140,631 income); Haverhill (67,387 residents, $87,675 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Muncie, IN (64,739 residents); Commerce City, CO (64,640 residents); Brentwood, CA (64,609 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.
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 Waltham?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 55.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.7 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
55.6%
Work from home
20.0%
Public transit
5.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 37,660 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Waltham?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.1×
Home value
$705,700
Household income
$116,560
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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
56.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$116,560
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
252 /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.
Waltham profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 89/100 (A) · 56.4%
Household income: 84/100 (A-) · $116,560
Poverty rate: 70/100 (B) · 4.3%
Violent crime: 40/100 (D) · 252 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Waltham sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waltham'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 - Waltham highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Waltham, MA (this city): home $705,700, crime 951/100k
Muncie, IN : home $92,000, crime 2,860/100k
Commerce City, CO : home $463,200, crime 3,663/100k
Brentwood, CA : home $791,600, crime 2,632/100k
Ocala, FL : home $219,900, crime 3,549/100k
North Little Rock, AR : home $169,500, crime 5,493/100k
South San Francisco, CA : home $1,160,100, crime 1,859/100k
Malden, MA : home $607,500, crime 1,472/100k
Brookline, MA : home $1,233,100, crime 995/100k
Haverhill, MA : home $426,900, crime 1,335/100k
Revere, MA : home $566,200, crime 1,980/100k
Taunton, MA : home $388,200, crime 1,282/100k
Medford, MA : home $715,500, crime 1,379/100k
How does Waltham compare to other US cities?
Where Waltham sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income86% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety66% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Massachusetts alone, Waltham ranks #73 of 149 Massachusetts cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Waltham 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 Waltham near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waltham ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waltham only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#72 of 233
69th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#50 of 240
79th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#107 of 247
56th 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
86th percentile nationally for median household income · 66th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waltham's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waltham'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 Waltham's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$705,7007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Waltham's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,136 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#581 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.1×, Waltham sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,136 of 15,516 and #581 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
$116,560Waltham, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waltham, 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 Waltham, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)56.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
64,723
Median Income
$116,560
Median Home Value
$705,700
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
4.3%
Labor force participation
67.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
56.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
951.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
252.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
699.4
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
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Waltham's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
64,190 residents
2021
64,522 residents
2022
64,628 residents
2023
65,002 residents
2024
65,178 residents
2025
65,037 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
32
housing units authorized
Single-Family
32
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
67
45
22
$24.5M
2020
57
41
16
$21.8M
2021
57
26
31
$22.3M
2022
40
22
18
$16.7M
2023
73
53
20
$75.9M
2024
32
32
0
$15.4M
Permit volume decreased 52% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.7 minutes
Drive Alone
55.6%
Carpool
10.2%
Public Transit
5.4%
Walk
6.2%
Work from Home
20.0%
Other
2.6%
Based on 37,660 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 Waltham. 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 Waltham 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 Waltham sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waltham 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.