Reading vs Wakefield

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

Reading 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 25,448 in Reading). Reading has the higher median household income ($163,725 vs $130,320 in Wakefield). Reading has the higher median home value ($741,100 vs $670,100 in Wakefield).

Population, income & housing

	Reading	Wakefield
Population	25,448	27,284
Median age	44.1 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$163,725	$130,320
Median home value	$741,100	$670,100
Median gross rent	$1,722	$1,872
Housing units	9,882	11,526
Homeownership rate	83.1%	70.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	65.1%	57.0%
Unemployment rate	3.0%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Reading	Wakefield
Population	25,132 → 25,448 (+1.3%)	26,993 → 27,284 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$132,731 → $163,725 (+23.4%)	$100,278 → $130,320 (+30.0%)
Median home value	$562,800 → $741,100 (+31.7%)	$505,800 → $670,100 (+32.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,354 → $1,722 (+27.2%)	$1,364 → $1,872 (+37.2%)

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

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)

	Reading	Wakefield
Under 5	5.8%	6.8%
5 to 17	17.5%	13.2%
18 to 24	6.1%	5.7%
25 to 34	9.4%	12.6%
35 to 44	12.7%	14.7%
45 to 54	13.8%	12.3%
55 to 64	14.3%	15.5%
65 to 74	12.2%	10.3%
75 and over	8.3%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Reading	Wakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	87.1%
Black or African American	0.3%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	6.2%	4.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.6%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.6%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Reading	Wakefield
No high school diploma	3.8%	4.2%
High school graduate	15.8%	21.0%
Some college or associate's	15.3%	17.8%
Bachelor's degree	34.3%	31.9%
Graduate or professional degree	30.8%	25.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Reading	Wakefield
Drove alone	59.6%	62.9%
Carpooled	6.3%	5.0%
Public transit	5.1%	6.9%
Walked	1.2%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	27.7%	22.2%
Other means	0.1%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Reading	Wakefield
1-unit, detached	71.5%	54.9%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	22.4%
5 to 19 units	7.7%	5.8%
20 or more units	12.0%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Reading	Wakefield
Poverty rate	2.7%	4.6%
Average household size	2.64	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	31	32
Median year structure built	1960	1956