Melrose vs Reading

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

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

Melrose has the higher population (29,488 vs 25,448 in Reading). Reading has the higher median household income ($163,725 vs $126,854 in Melrose). Melrose has the higher median home value ($796,100 vs $741,100 in Reading).

Population, income & housing

	Melrose	Reading
Population	29,488	25,448
Median age	44.3 yrs	44.1 yrs
Median household income	$126,854	$163,725
Median home value	$796,100	$741,100
Median gross rent	$1,933	$1,722
Housing units	12,724	9,882
Homeownership rate	67.8%	83.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	62.0%	65.1%
Unemployment rate	4.1%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Melrose	Reading
Population	28,113 → 29,488 (+4.9%)	25,132 → 25,448 (+1.3%)
Median household income	$106,955 → $126,854 (+18.6%)	$132,731 → $163,725 (+23.4%)
Median home value	$570,300 → $796,100 (+39.6%)	$562,800 → $741,100 (+31.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,516 → $1,933 (+27.5%)	$1,354 → $1,722 (+27.2%)

Melrose

Population

28,11329,488

Median household income

$106,955$126,854

Median home value

$570,300$796,100

Median gross rent

$1,516$1,933

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)

	Melrose	Reading
Under 5	5.1%	5.8%
5 to 17	14.7%	17.5%
18 to 24	5.4%	6.1%
25 to 34	10.0%	9.4%
35 to 44	16.2%	12.7%
45 to 54	15.1%	13.8%
55 to 64	12.7%	14.3%
65 to 74	9.3%	12.2%
75 and over	11.4%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Melrose	Reading
White (non-Hispanic)	76.9%	85.9%
Black or African American	2.2%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	9.6%	6.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.8%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	6.0%	4.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Melrose	Reading
No high school diploma	5.0%	3.8%
High school graduate	17.7%	15.8%
Some college or associate's	15.3%	15.3%
Bachelor's degree	33.7%	34.3%
Graduate or professional degree	28.3%	30.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Melrose	Reading
Drove alone	50.4%	59.6%
Carpooled	4.7%	6.3%
Public transit	15.7%	5.1%
Walked	1.6%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.0%
Worked from home	25.6%	27.7%
Other means	1.6%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Melrose	Reading
1-unit, detached	55.1%	71.5%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	2.2%
2 to 4 units	13.3%	6.7%
5 to 19 units	10.1%	7.7%
20 or more units	16.7%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	1.4%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Melrose	Reading
Poverty rate	3.7%	2.7%
Average household size	2.36	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	36	31
Median year structure built	1938	1960