Fall River vs New Bedford

A side-by-side comparison of Fall River and New Bedford: population, income, housing, and more.

Fall River and New Bedford are places in Massachusetts. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

New Bedford has the higher population (100,731 vs 93,764 in Fall River). New Bedford has the higher median household income ($56,025 vs $53,933 in Fall River). Fall River has the higher median home value ($357,800 vs $324,400 in New Bedford).

Population, income & housing

	Fall River	New Bedford
Population	93,764	100,731
Median age	39.0 yrs	37.0 yrs
Median household income	$53,933	$56,025
Median home value	$357,800	$324,400
Median gross rent	$1,086	$1,085
Housing units	44,359	44,468
Homeownership rate	36.3%	40.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.8%	16.8%
Unemployment rate	8.1%	7.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fall River	New Bedford
Population	89,388 → 93,764 (+4.9%)	95,239 → 100,731 (+5.8%)
Median household income	$43,503 → $53,933 (+24.0%)	$46,321 → $56,025 (+20.9%)
Median home value	$242,200 → $357,800 (+47.7%)	$226,900 → $324,400 (+43.0%)
Median gross rent	$804 → $1,086 (+35.1%)	$847 → $1,085 (+28.1%)

Fall River

Population

89,38893,764

Median household income

$43,503$53,933

Median home value

$242,200$357,800

Median gross rent

$804$1,086

New Bedford

Population

95,239100,731

Median household income

$46,321$56,025

Median home value

$226,900$324,400

Median gross rent

$847$1,085

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fall River	New Bedford
Under 5	5.4%	6.5%
5 to 17	15.6%	17.1%
18 to 24	7.5%	8.9%
25 to 34	15.6%	14.2%
35 to 44	13.6%	13.6%
45 to 54	13.4%	12.3%
55 to 64	13.0%	11.5%
65 to 74	9.2%	9.4%
75 and over	6.6%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fall River	New Bedford
White (non-Hispanic)	69.5%	55.6%
Black or African American	5.5%	5.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	2.7%	1.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	4.2%
Two or more races	7.7%	8.7%
Hispanic or Latino	13.2%	24.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fall River	New Bedford
No high school diploma	23.2%	23.9%
High school graduate	34.2%	34.4%
Some college or associate's	25.8%	24.9%
Bachelor's degree	11.1%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	5.7%	5.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fall River	New Bedford
Drove alone	72.4%	72.8%
Carpooled	14.6%	15.3%
Public transit	1.3%	2.6%
Walked	3.9%	2.5%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	6.5%	4.7%
Other means	1.2%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fall River	New Bedford
1-unit, detached	22.9%	30.2%
1-unit, attached	2.0%	1.9%
2 to 4 units	44.4%	47.2%
5 to 19 units	20.4%	12.7%
20 or more units	9.7%	8.0%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Fall River	New Bedford
Poverty rate	20.9%	19.9%
Average household size	2.21	2.34
Mean commute (minutes)	25	25
Median year structure built	1945	1938