Melrose vs Watertown

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

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

Watertown has the higher population (35,270 vs 29,488 in Melrose). Melrose has the higher median household income ($126,854 vs $123,422 in Watertown). Melrose has the higher median home value ($796,100 vs $737,600 in Watertown).

Population, income & housing

	Melrose	Watertown
Population	29,488	35,270
Median age	44.3 yrs	38.8 yrs
Median household income	$126,854	$123,422
Median home value	$796,100	$737,600
Median gross rent	$1,933	$2,357
Housing units	12,724	17,059
Homeownership rate	67.8%	48.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	62.0%	67.2%
Unemployment rate	4.1%	5.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Melrose	Watertown
Population	28,113 → 29,488 (+4.9%)	—
Median household income	$106,955 → $126,854 (+18.6%)	—
Median home value	$570,300 → $796,100 (+39.6%)	—
Median gross rent	$1,516 → $1,933 (+27.5%)	—

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

Watertown

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Melrose	Watertown
Under 5	5.1%	—
5 to 17	14.7%	—
18 to 24	5.4%	—
25 to 34	10.0%	—
35 to 44	16.2%	—
45 to 54	15.1%	—
55 to 64	12.7%	—
65 to 74	9.3%	—
75 and over	11.4%	—

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Melrose	Watertown
White (non-Hispanic)	76.9%	—
Black or African American	2.2%	—
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	—
Asian	9.6%	—
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	—
Some other race	0.5%	—
Two or more races	4.8%	—
Hispanic or Latino	6.0%	—

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Melrose	Watertown
No high school diploma	5.0%	—
High school graduate	17.7%	—
Some college or associate's	15.3%	—
Bachelor's degree	33.7%	—
Graduate or professional degree	28.3%	—

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Melrose	Watertown
Drove alone	50.4%	—
Carpooled	4.7%	—
Public transit	15.7%	—
Walked	1.6%	—
Bicycle	0.5%	—
Worked from home	25.6%	—
Other means	1.6%	—

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Melrose	Watertown
1-unit, detached	55.1%	—
1-unit, attached	3.4%	—
2 to 4 units	13.3%	—
5 to 19 units	10.1%	—
20 or more units	16.7%	—
Mobile home & other	1.4%	—

Poverty & households

	Melrose	Watertown
Poverty rate	3.7%	—
Average household size	2.36	—
Mean commute (minutes)	36	—
Median year structure built	1938	—