Belmont vs Melrose

A side-by-side comparison of Belmont and Melrose: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Melrose has the higher population (29,488 vs 27,009 in Belmont). Belmont has the higher median household income ($178,188 vs $126,854 in Melrose). Belmont has the higher median home value ($1,108,800 vs $796,100 in Melrose).

Population, income & housing

	Belmont	Melrose
Population	27,009	29,488
Median age	42.4 yrs	44.3 yrs
Median household income	$178,188	$126,854
Median home value	$1,108,800	$796,100
Median gross rent	$2,387	$1,933
Housing units	10,833	12,724
Homeownership rate	64.2%	67.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	80.2%	62.0%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Belmont	Melrose
Population	26,113 → 27,009 (+3.4%)	28,113 → 29,488 (+4.9%)
Median household income	$129,380 → $178,188 (+37.7%)	$106,955 → $126,854 (+18.6%)
Median home value	$859,600 → $1,108,800 (+29.0%)	$570,300 → $796,100 (+39.6%)
Median gross rent	$2,002 → $2,387 (+19.2%)	$1,516 → $1,933 (+27.5%)

Belmont

Population

26,11327,009

Median household income

$129,380$178,188

Median home value

$859,600$1,108,800

Median gross rent

$2,002$2,387

Melrose

Population

28,11329,488

Median household income

$106,955$126,854

Median home value

$570,300$796,100

Median gross rent

$1,516$1,933

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Belmont	Melrose
Under 5	5.0%	5.1%
5 to 17	19.4%	14.7%
18 to 24	5.1%	5.4%
25 to 34	9.5%	10.0%
35 to 44	15.2%	16.2%
45 to 54	15.0%	15.1%
55 to 64	12.6%	12.7%
65 to 74	11.2%	9.3%
75 and over	7.1%	11.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Belmont	Melrose
White (non-Hispanic)	68.3%	76.9%
Black or African American	1.7%	2.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	20.4%	9.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.5%	4.8%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	6.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Belmont	Melrose
No high school diploma	2.4%	5.0%
High school graduate	7.8%	17.7%
Some college or associate's	9.6%	15.3%
Bachelor's degree	28.3%	33.7%
Graduate or professional degree	51.9%	28.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Belmont	Melrose
Drove alone	48.9%	50.4%
Carpooled	5.7%	4.7%
Public transit	11.1%	15.7%
Walked	2.0%	1.6%
Bicycle	3.1%	0.5%
Worked from home	28.4%	25.6%
Other means	0.8%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Belmont	Melrose
1-unit, detached	45.6%	55.1%
1-unit, attached	5.9%	3.4%
2 to 4 units	38.2%	13.3%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	10.1%
20 or more units	7.2%	16.7%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	1.4%

Poverty & households

	Belmont	Melrose
Poverty rate	3.5%	3.7%
Average household size	2.59	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	29	36
Median year structure built	1938	1938