Belmont vs Reading

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

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

Belmont has the higher population (27,009 vs 25,448 in Reading). Belmont has the higher median household income ($178,188 vs $163,725 in Reading). Belmont has the higher median home value ($1,108,800 vs $741,100 in Reading).

Population, income & housing

	Belmont	Reading
Population	27,009	25,448
Median age	42.4 yrs	44.1 yrs
Median household income	$178,188	$163,725
Median home value	$1,108,800	$741,100
Median gross rent	$2,387	$1,722
Housing units	10,833	9,882
Homeownership rate	64.2%	83.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	80.2%	65.1%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Belmont	Reading
Population	26,113 → 27,009 (+3.4%)	25,132 → 25,448 (+1.3%)
Median household income	$129,380 → $178,188 (+37.7%)	$132,731 → $163,725 (+23.4%)
Median home value	$859,600 → $1,108,800 (+29.0%)	$562,800 → $741,100 (+31.7%)
Median gross rent	$2,002 → $2,387 (+19.2%)	$1,354 → $1,722 (+27.2%)

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

Reading

Population

25,13225,448

Median household income

$132,731$163,725

Median home value

$562,800$741,100

Median gross rent

$1,354$1,722

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Belmont	Reading
Under 5	5.0%	5.8%
5 to 17	19.4%	17.5%
18 to 24	5.1%	6.1%
25 to 34	9.5%	9.4%
35 to 44	15.2%	12.7%
45 to 54	15.0%	13.8%
55 to 64	12.6%	14.3%
65 to 74	11.2%	12.2%
75 and over	7.1%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Belmont	Reading
White (non-Hispanic)	68.3%	85.9%
Black or African American	1.7%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	20.4%	6.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.5%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	4.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Belmont	Reading
No high school diploma	2.4%	3.8%
High school graduate	7.8%	15.8%
Some college or associate's	9.6%	15.3%
Bachelor's degree	28.3%	34.3%
Graduate or professional degree	51.9%	30.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Belmont	Reading
Drove alone	48.9%	59.6%
Carpooled	5.7%	6.3%
Public transit	11.1%	5.1%
Walked	2.0%	1.2%
Bicycle	3.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	28.4%	27.7%
Other means	0.8%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Belmont	Reading
1-unit, detached	45.6%	71.5%
1-unit, attached	5.9%	2.2%
2 to 4 units	38.2%	6.7%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	7.7%
20 or more units	7.2%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Belmont	Reading
Poverty rate	3.5%	2.7%
Average household size	2.59	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	29	31
Median year structure built	1938	1960