Essex vs Rowley

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

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

Essex has the higher population (1,775 vs 1,576 in Rowley). Essex has the higher median household income ($156,094 vs $106,250 in Rowley). Essex has the higher median home value ($774,400 vs $615,500 in Rowley).

Population, income & housing

	Essex	Rowley
Population	1,775	1,576
Median age	42.2 yrs	52.8 yrs
Median household income	$156,094	$106,250
Median home value	$774,400	$615,500
Median gross rent	$1,750	$1,100
Housing units	632	655
Homeownership rate	75.2%	80.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	67.9%	56.5%
Unemployment rate	1.4%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Essex	Rowley
Population	1,393 → 1,775 (+27.4%)	1,629 → 1,576 (-3.3%)
Median household income	$114,479 → $156,094 (+36.4%)	$79,554 → $106,250 (+33.6%)
Median home value	$493,500 → $774,400 (+56.9%)	$455,900 → $615,500 (+35.0%)
Median gross rent	$483 → $1,750 (+262.3%)	$1,342 → $1,100 (-18.0%)

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

Rowley

Population

1,6291,576

Median household income

$79,554$106,250

Median home value

$455,900$615,500

Median gross rent

$1,342$1,100

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Essex	Rowley
Under 5	6.9%	5.1%
5 to 17	18.5%	12.8%
18 to 24	5.1%	3.5%
25 to 34	7.7%	16.3%
35 to 44	13.2%	7.6%
45 to 54	18.3%	4.8%
55 to 64	17.2%	25.0%
65 to 74	8.0%	12.6%
75 and over	5.1%	12.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Essex	Rowley
White (non-Hispanic)	98.6%	86.6%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.5%	13.4%
Hispanic or Latino	0.8%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Essex	Rowley
No high school diploma	1.9%	0.0%
High school graduate	11.0%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	19.2%	30.4%
Bachelor's degree	40.0%	19.0%
Graduate or professional degree	27.8%	37.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Essex	Rowley
Drove alone	64.6%	89.4%
Carpooled	10.1%	1.6%
Public transit	0.9%	1.4%
Walked	10.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	7.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Essex	Rowley
1-unit, detached	58.2%	66.7%
1-unit, attached	12.2%	8.7%
2 to 4 units	28.5%	15.7%
5 to 19 units	1.1%	6.9%
20 or more units	0.0%	2.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Essex	Rowley
Poverty rate	3.3%	2.7%
Average household size	2.81	2.41
Mean commute (minutes)	23	26
Median year structure built	1959	1938