Burlington vs Wakefield

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

Burlington 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 26,223 in Burlington). Burlington has the higher median household income ($142,207 vs $130,320 in Wakefield). Burlington has the higher median home value ($679,400 vs $670,100 in Wakefield).

Population, income & housing

	Burlington	Wakefield
Population	26,223	27,284
Median age	44.9 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$142,207	$130,320
Median home value	$679,400	$670,100
Median gross rent	$2,597	$1,872
Housing units	10,533	11,526
Homeownership rate	74.6%	70.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	58.2%	57.0%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Burlington	Wakefield
Population	27,650 → 26,223 (-5.2%)	26,993 → 27,284 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$118,721 → $142,207 (+19.8%)	$100,278 → $130,320 (+30.0%)
Median home value	$533,800 → $679,400 (+27.3%)	$505,800 → $670,100 (+32.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,960 → $2,597 (+32.5%)	$1,364 → $1,872 (+37.2%)

Burlington

Population

27,65026,223

Median household income

$118,721$142,207

Median home value

$533,800$679,400

Median gross rent

$1,960$2,597

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)

	Burlington	Wakefield
Under 5	4.8%	6.8%
5 to 17	13.2%	13.2%
18 to 24	7.8%	5.7%
25 to 34	10.3%	12.6%
35 to 44	14.0%	14.7%
45 to 54	13.6%	12.3%
55 to 64	14.8%	15.5%
65 to 74	10.8%	10.3%
75 and over	10.7%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Burlington	Wakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	74.7%	87.1%
Black or African American	2.5%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	13.5%	4.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.8%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.3%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Burlington	Wakefield
No high school diploma	3.5%	4.2%
High school graduate	19.0%	21.0%
Some college or associate's	19.3%	17.8%
Bachelor's degree	32.5%	31.9%
Graduate or professional degree	25.7%	25.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Burlington	Wakefield
Drove alone	68.7%	62.9%
Carpooled	7.0%	5.0%
Public transit	3.0%	6.9%
Walked	0.5%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.1%
Worked from home	20.2%	22.2%
Other means	0.3%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Burlington	Wakefield
1-unit, detached	69.9%	54.9%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	1.8%	22.4%
5 to 19 units	7.9%	5.8%
20 or more units	17.1%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Burlington	Wakefield
Poverty rate	5.6%	4.6%
Average household size	2.58	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	28	32
Median year structure built	1971	1956