Lexington vs Wakefield

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

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

Lexington has the higher population (34,085 vs 27,284 in Wakefield). Lexington has the higher median household income ($219,402 vs $130,320 in Wakefield). Lexington has the higher median home value ($1,147,900 vs $670,100 in Wakefield).

Population, income & housing

	Lexington	Wakefield
Population	34,085	27,284
Median age	46.6 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$219,402	$130,320
Median home value	$1,147,900	$670,100
Median gross rent	$2,816	$1,872
Housing units	12,672	11,526
Homeownership rate	81.0%	70.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	85.0%	57.0%
Unemployment rate	3.0%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lexington	Wakefield
Population	33,340 → 34,085 (+2.2%)	26,993 → 27,284 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$186,201 → $219,402 (+17.8%)	$100,278 → $130,320 (+30.0%)
Median home value	$889,700 → $1,147,900 (+29.0%)	$505,800 → $670,100 (+32.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,475 → $2,816 (+13.8%)	$1,364 → $1,872 (+37.2%)

Lexington

Population

33,34034,085

Median household income

$186,201$219,402

Median home value

$889,700$1,147,900

Median gross rent

$2,475$2,816

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)

	Lexington	Wakefield
Under 5	3.7%	6.8%
5 to 17	22.8%	13.2%
18 to 24	4.4%	5.7%
25 to 34	4.2%	12.6%
35 to 44	11.6%	14.7%
45 to 54	19.2%	12.3%
55 to 64	13.1%	15.5%
65 to 74	11.5%	10.3%
75 and over	9.5%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lexington	Wakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	56.1%	87.1%
Black or African American	2.1%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	32.9%	4.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.7%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	3.3%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lexington	Wakefield
No high school diploma	2.5%	4.2%
High school graduate	4.5%	21.0%
Some college or associate's	8.0%	17.8%
Bachelor's degree	26.2%	31.9%
Graduate or professional degree	58.8%	25.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lexington	Wakefield
Drove alone	54.1%	62.9%
Carpooled	4.7%	5.0%
Public transit	5.7%	6.9%
Walked	2.2%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.9%	0.1%
Worked from home	31.6%	22.2%
Other means	0.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lexington	Wakefield
1-unit, detached	73.4%	54.9%
1-unit, attached	8.6%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	5.0%	22.4%
5 to 19 units	5.8%	5.8%
20 or more units	7.3%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Lexington	Wakefield
Poverty rate	4.3%	4.6%
Average household size	2.73	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	30	32
Median year structure built	1964	1956