Chester vs Palmer Town

A side-by-side comparison of Chester and Palmer Town: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Palmer Town has the higher population (12,372 vs 692 in Chester). Chester has the higher median household income ($86,042 vs $78,789 in Palmer Town). Palmer Town has the higher median home value ($255,000 vs $203,300 in Chester).

Population, income & housing

	Chester	Palmer Town
Population	692	12,372
Median age	42.6 yrs	50.5 yrs
Median household income	$86,042	$78,789
Median home value	$203,300	$255,000
Median gross rent	$1,095	$1,041
Housing units	283	5,792
Homeownership rate	70.5%	70.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.1%	24.0%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chester	Palmer Town
Population	787 → 692 (-12.1%)	12,237 → 12,372 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$65,250 → $86,042 (+31.9%)	$64,651 → $78,789 (+21.9%)
Median home value	$175,700 → $203,300 (+15.7%)	$197,000 → $255,000 (+29.4%)
Median gross rent	$989 → $1,095 (+10.7%)	$962 → $1,041 (+8.2%)

Chester

Population

787692

Median household income

$65,250$86,042

Median home value

$175,700$203,300

Median gross rent

$989$1,095

Palmer Town

Population

12,23712,372

Median household income

$64,651$78,789

Median home value

$197,000$255,000

Median gross rent

$962$1,041

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chester	Palmer Town
Under 5	0.6%	4.1%
5 to 17	31.2%	9.9%
18 to 24	5.3%	6.7%
25 to 34	5.2%	13.0%
35 to 44	9.2%	9.5%
45 to 54	23.8%	12.9%
55 to 64	15.9%	23.0%
65 to 74	5.6%	11.8%
75 and over	3.0%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chester	Palmer Town
White (non-Hispanic)	98.4%	84.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	3.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	0.4%
Two or more races	0.0%	7.4%
Hispanic or Latino	0.7%	4.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chester	Palmer Town
No high school diploma	2.1%	11.6%
High school graduate	59.1%	35.7%
Some college or associate's	22.8%	28.7%
Bachelor's degree	7.6%	15.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.5%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chester	Palmer Town
Drove alone	91.2%	83.0%
Carpooled	2.3%	6.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.3%
Walked	3.8%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	1.8%	8.1%
Other means	0.9%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chester	Palmer Town
1-unit, detached	75.6%	62.1%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	3.9%
2 to 4 units	17.0%	18.3%
5 to 19 units	6.4%	8.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	2.9%
Mobile home & other	1.1%	4.4%

Poverty & households

	Chester	Palmer Town
Poverty rate	2.9%	8.6%
Average household size	3.09	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	30	32
Median year structure built	1938	1965