Belmont vs Wakefield

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

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

Wakefield has the higher population (27,284 vs 27,009 in Belmont). Belmont has the higher median household income ($178,188 vs $130,320 in Wakefield). Belmont has the higher median home value ($1,108,800 vs $670,100 in Wakefield).

Population, income & housing

	Belmont	Wakefield
Population	27,009	27,284
Median age	42.4 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$178,188	$130,320
Median home value	$1,108,800	$670,100
Median gross rent	$2,387	$1,872
Housing units	10,833	11,526
Homeownership rate	64.2%	70.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	80.2%	57.0%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Belmont	Wakefield
Population	26,113 → 27,009 (+3.4%)	26,993 → 27,284 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$129,380 → $178,188 (+37.7%)	$100,278 → $130,320 (+30.0%)
Median home value	$859,600 → $1,108,800 (+29.0%)	$505,800 → $670,100 (+32.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,002 → $2,387 (+19.2%)	$1,364 → $1,872 (+37.2%)

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

Wakefield

Population

26,99327,284

Median household income

$100,278$130,320

Median home value

$505,800$670,100

Median gross rent

$1,364$1,872

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Belmont	Wakefield
Under 5	5.0%	6.8%
5 to 17	19.4%	13.2%
18 to 24	5.1%	5.7%
25 to 34	9.5%	12.6%
35 to 44	15.2%	14.7%
45 to 54	15.0%	12.3%
55 to 64	12.6%	15.5%
65 to 74	11.2%	10.3%
75 and over	7.1%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Belmont	Wakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	68.3%	87.1%
Black or African American	1.7%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	20.4%	4.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.5%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Belmont	Wakefield
No high school diploma	2.4%	4.2%
High school graduate	7.8%	21.0%
Some college or associate's	9.6%	17.8%
Bachelor's degree	28.3%	31.9%
Graduate or professional degree	51.9%	25.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Belmont	Wakefield
Drove alone	48.9%	62.9%
Carpooled	5.7%	5.0%
Public transit	11.1%	6.9%
Walked	2.0%	2.4%
Bicycle	3.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	28.4%	22.2%
Other means	0.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Belmont	Wakefield
1-unit, detached	45.6%	54.9%
1-unit, attached	5.9%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	38.2%	22.4%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	5.8%
20 or more units	7.2%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Belmont	Wakefield
Poverty rate	3.5%	4.6%
Average household size	2.59	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	29	32
Median year structure built	1938	1956