Essex vs Nahant

A side-by-side comparison of Essex and Nahant: population, income, housing, and more.

Essex and Nahant are places in Massachusetts. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Nahant has the higher population (3,328 vs 1,775 in Essex). Essex has the higher median household income ($156,094 vs $111,004 in Nahant). Essex has the higher median home value ($774,400 vs $686,000 in Nahant).

Population, income & housing

	Essex	Nahant
Population	1,775	3,328
Median age	42.2 yrs	58.6 yrs
Median household income	$156,094	$111,004
Median home value	$774,400	$686,000
Median gross rent	$1,750	$1,790
Housing units	632	1,810
Homeownership rate	75.2%	84.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	67.9%	61.7%
Unemployment rate	1.4%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Essex	Nahant
Population	1,393 → 1,775 (+27.4%)	3,502 → 3,328 (-5.0%)
Median household income	$114,479 → $156,094 (+36.4%)	$97,778 → $111,004 (+13.5%)
Median home value	$493,500 → $774,400 (+56.9%)	$625,400 → $686,000 (+9.7%)
Median gross rent	$483 → $1,750 (+262.3%)	$1,473 → $1,790 (+21.5%)

Essex

Population

1,3931,775

Median household income

$114,479$156,094

Median home value

$493,500$774,400

Median gross rent

$483$1,750

Nahant

Population

3,5023,328

Median household income

$97,778$111,004

Median home value

$625,400$686,000

Median gross rent

$1,473$1,790

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Essex	Nahant
Under 5	6.9%	5.1%
5 to 17	18.5%	6.6%
18 to 24	5.1%	6.6%
25 to 34	7.7%	6.3%
35 to 44	13.2%	8.6%
45 to 54	18.3%	12.4%
55 to 64	17.2%	22.0%
65 to 74	8.0%	21.8%
75 and over	5.1%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Essex	Nahant
White (non-Hispanic)	98.6%	92.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	1.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	0.5%	3.8%
Hispanic or Latino	0.8%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Essex	Nahant
No high school diploma	1.9%	1.9%
High school graduate	11.0%	20.7%
Some college or associate's	19.2%	15.7%
Bachelor's degree	40.0%	31.0%
Graduate or professional degree	27.8%	30.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Essex	Nahant
Drove alone	64.6%	69.3%
Carpooled	10.1%	4.6%
Public transit	0.9%	3.4%
Walked	10.0%	5.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	14.9%
Other means	0.0%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Essex	Nahant
1-unit, detached	58.2%	76.2%
1-unit, attached	12.2%	1.8%
2 to 4 units	28.5%	11.9%
5 to 19 units	1.1%	8.1%
20 or more units	0.0%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Essex	Nahant
Poverty rate	3.3%	6.8%
Average household size	2.81	2.04
Mean commute (minutes)	23	33
Median year structure built	1959	1938