Lawrence vs Salem

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

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

Lawrence has the higher population (88,297 vs 44,241 in Salem). Salem has the higher median household income ($85,137 vs $57,903 in Lawrence). Salem has the higher median home value ($497,400 vs $393,500 in Lawrence).

Population, income & housing

	Lawrence	Salem
Population	88,297	44,241
Median age	32.6 yrs	38.5 yrs
Median household income	$57,903	$85,137
Median home value	$393,500	$497,400
Median gross rent	$1,569	$1,800
Housing units	31,929	21,000
Homeownership rate	30.3%	51.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.4%	49.6%
Unemployment rate	8.7%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lawrence	Salem
Population	79,942 → 88,297 (+10.5%)	43,252 → 44,241 (+2.3%)
Median household income	$44,613 → $57,903 (+29.8%)	$68,808 → $85,137 (+23.7%)
Median home value	$271,100 → $393,500 (+45.1%)	$367,200 → $497,400 (+35.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,145 → $1,569 (+37.0%)	$1,289 → $1,800 (+39.6%)

Lawrence

Population

79,94288,297

Median household income

$44,613$57,903

Median home value

$271,100$393,500

Median gross rent

$1,145$1,569

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)

	Lawrence	Salem
Under 5	7.8%	3.8%
5 to 17	19.1%	11.8%
18 to 24	10.7%	12.0%
25 to 34	16.0%	17.8%
35 to 44	13.2%	13.6%
45 to 54	12.2%	11.1%
55 to 64	10.9%	13.5%
65 to 74	6.0%	10.1%
75 and over	4.0%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lawrence	Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	12.6%	67.6%
Black or African American	2.1%	5.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	1.7%	3.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.6%	1.1%
Two or more races	0.8%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	82.3%	19.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lawrence	Salem
No high school diploma	27.2%	8.1%
High school graduate	34.9%	20.6%
Some college or associate's	21.5%	21.7%
Bachelor's degree	11.6%	28.9%
Graduate or professional degree	4.8%	20.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lawrence	Salem
Drove alone	67.2%	57.6%
Carpooled	13.6%	5.6%
Public transit	3.6%	6.3%
Walked	3.0%	6.2%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.8%
Worked from home	5.7%	19.4%
Other means	6.5%	4.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lawrence	Salem
1-unit, detached	19.8%	25.3%
1-unit, attached	7.7%	6.6%
2 to 4 units	44.4%	37.4%
5 to 19 units	12.1%	14.1%
20 or more units	15.7%	16.5%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Lawrence	Salem
Poverty rate	18.2%	13.7%
Average household size	2.82	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	23	30
Median year structure built	1947	1938