Lowell vs Somerville

A side-by-side comparison of Lowell and Somerville: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lowell has the higher population (114,799 vs 80,549 in Somerville). Somerville has the higher median household income ($127,056 vs $76,205 in Lowell). Somerville has the higher median home value ($899,400 vs $395,100 in Lowell).

Population, income & housing

	Lowell	Somerville
Population	114,799	80,549
Median age	35.5 yrs	32.3 yrs
Median household income	$76,205	$127,056
Median home value	$395,100	$899,400
Median gross rent	$1,603	$2,468
Housing units	44,110	37,583
Homeownership rate	44.0%	34.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.9%	68.0%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lowell	Somerville
Population	111,306 → 114,799 (+3.1%)	80,906 → 80,549 (-0.4%)
Median household income	$56,878 → $76,205 (+34.0%)	$97,328 → $127,056 (+30.5%)
Median home value	$269,800 → $395,100 (+46.4%)	$664,700 → $899,400 (+35.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,158 → $1,603 (+38.4%)	$1,874 → $2,468 (+31.7%)

Lowell

Population

111,306114,799

Median household income

$56,878$76,205

Median home value

$269,800$395,100

Median gross rent

$1,158$1,603

Somerville

Population

80,90680,549

Median household income

$97,328$127,056

Median home value

$664,700$899,400

Median gross rent

$1,874$2,468

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lowell	Somerville
Under 5	5.7%	4.0%
5 to 17	15.5%	6.5%
18 to 24	12.3%	13.6%
25 to 34	15.8%	33.4%
35 to 44	14.6%	15.4%
45 to 54	11.1%	9.6%
55 to 64	12.7%	8.1%
65 to 74	7.6%	5.9%
75 and over	4.7%	3.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lowell	Somerville
White (non-Hispanic)	44.2%	66.1%
Black or African American	10.1%	4.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	21.0%	11.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	1.1%	1.3%
Two or more races	4.2%	4.9%
Hispanic or Latino	19.3%	11.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lowell	Somerville
No high school diploma	16.7%	7.0%
High school graduate	30.8%	13.3%
Some college or associate's	22.7%	11.6%
Bachelor's degree	18.0%	34.6%
Graduate or professional degree	11.9%	33.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lowell	Somerville
Drove alone	73.0%	30.7%
Carpooled	8.6%	4.8%
Public transit	2.0%	19.6%
Walked	3.9%	8.4%
Bicycle	0.4%	6.4%
Worked from home	10.0%	29.0%
Other means	2.2%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lowell	Somerville
1-unit, detached	30.5%	11.6%
1-unit, attached	7.7%	4.9%
2 to 4 units	26.8%	53.4%
5 to 19 units	16.9%	13.7%
20 or more units	17.7%	16.2%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Lowell	Somerville
Poverty rate	16.0%	10.1%
Average household size	2.59	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	28	31
Median year structure built	1954	1938