Arlington vs Watertown

A side-by-side comparison of Arlington and Watertown: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Arlington has the higher population (46,015 vs 35,270 in Watertown). Arlington has the higher median household income ($141,440 vs $123,422 in Watertown). Arlington has the higher median home value ($885,000 vs $737,600 in Watertown).

Population, income & housing

	Arlington	Watertown
Population	46,015	35,270
Median age	41.3 yrs	38.8 yrs
Median household income	$141,440	$123,422
Median home value	$885,000	$737,600
Median gross rent	$2,043	$2,357
Housing units	20,599	17,059
Homeownership rate	60.6%	48.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	74.4%	67.2%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	5.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Arlington	Watertown
Population	45,304 → 46,015 (+1.6%)	—
Median household income	$108,389 → $141,440 (+30.5%)	—
Median home value	$642,200 → $885,000 (+37.8%)	—
Median gross rent	$1,730 → $2,043 (+18.1%)	—

Arlington

Population

45,30446,015

Median household income

$108,389$141,440

Median home value

$642,200$885,000

Median gross rent

$1,730$2,043

Watertown

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Arlington	Watertown
Under 5	4.8%	—
5 to 17	15.7%	—
18 to 24	4.9%	—
25 to 34	15.5%	—
35 to 44	14.3%	—
45 to 54	15.6%	—
55 to 64	12.3%	—
65 to 74	9.8%	—
75 and over	7.0%	—

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Arlington	Watertown
White (non-Hispanic)	75.2%	—
Black or African American	2.5%	—
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	—
Asian	12.1%	—
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	—
Some other race	0.5%	—
Two or more races	4.6%	—
Hispanic or Latino	5.0%	—

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Arlington	Watertown
No high school diploma	2.4%	—
High school graduate	10.8%	—
Some college or associate's	12.4%	—
Bachelor's degree	30.6%	—
Graduate or professional degree	43.8%	—

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Arlington	Watertown
Drove alone	45.8%	—
Carpooled	3.4%	—
Public transit	12.5%	—
Walked	2.0%	—
Bicycle	4.7%	—
Worked from home	30.5%	—
Other means	1.2%	—

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Arlington	Watertown
1-unit, detached	38.2%	—
1-unit, attached	6.8%	—
2 to 4 units	30.3%	—
5 to 19 units	10.5%	—
20 or more units	13.8%	—
Mobile home & other	0.4%	—

Poverty & households

	Arlington	Watertown
Poverty rate	5.4%	—
Average household size	2.30	—
Mean commute (minutes)	32	—
Median year structure built	1943	—