Gloucester vs Salem

A side-by-side comparison of Gloucester and Salem: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Salem has the higher population (44,241 vs 29,862 in Gloucester). Gloucester has the higher median household income ($87,898 vs $85,137 in Salem). Gloucester has the higher median home value ($587,800 vs $497,400 in Salem).

Population, income & housing

	Gloucester	Salem
Population	29,862	44,241
Median age	51.0 yrs	38.5 yrs
Median household income	$87,898	$85,137
Median home value	$587,800	$497,400
Median gross rent	$1,395	$1,800
Housing units	14,630	21,000
Homeownership rate	63.3%	51.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	38.8%	49.6%
Unemployment rate	6.4%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Gloucester	Salem
Population	30,162 → 29,862 (-1.0%)	43,252 → 44,241 (+2.3%)
Median household income	$72,574 → $87,898 (+21.1%)	$68,808 → $85,137 (+23.7%)
Median home value	$425,400 → $587,800 (+38.2%)	$367,200 → $497,400 (+35.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,185 → $1,395 (+17.7%)	$1,289 → $1,800 (+39.6%)

Gloucester

Population

30,16229,862

Median household income

$72,574$87,898

Median home value

$425,400$587,800

Median gross rent

$1,185$1,395

Salem

Population

43,25244,241

Median household income

$68,808$85,137

Median home value

$367,200$497,400

Median gross rent

$1,289$1,800

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Gloucester	Salem
Under 5	5.5%	3.8%
5 to 17	10.0%	11.8%
18 to 24	7.6%	12.0%
25 to 34	10.1%	17.8%
35 to 44	11.2%	13.6%
45 to 54	10.7%	11.1%
55 to 64	19.5%	13.5%
65 to 74	16.0%	10.1%
75 and over	9.4%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Gloucester	Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	89.1%	67.6%
Black or African American	1.1%	5.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.6%	3.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.3%	1.1%
Two or more races	3.1%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	4.8%	19.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Gloucester	Salem
No high school diploma	6.1%	8.1%
High school graduate	28.2%	20.6%
Some college or associate's	26.9%	21.7%
Bachelor's degree	23.0%	28.9%
Graduate or professional degree	15.8%	20.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Gloucester	Salem
Drove alone	74.1%	57.6%
Carpooled	6.6%	5.6%
Public transit	2.5%	6.3%
Walked	4.8%	6.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.8%
Worked from home	10.7%	19.4%
Other means	1.4%	4.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Gloucester	Salem
1-unit, detached	51.0%	25.3%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	6.6%
2 to 4 units	32.0%	37.4%
5 to 19 units	7.0%	14.1%
20 or more units	5.2%	16.5%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Gloucester	Salem
Poverty rate	10.6%	13.7%
Average household size	2.24	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	26	30
Median year structure built	1944	1938