Reading vs Wilmington

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

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

Reading has the higher population (25,448 vs 23,195 in Wilmington). Reading has the higher median household income ($163,725 vs $161,473 in Wilmington). Reading has the higher median home value ($741,100 vs $646,200 in Wilmington).

Population, income & housing

	Reading	Wilmington
Population	25,448	23,195
Median age	44.1 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$163,725	$161,473
Median home value	$741,100	$646,200
Median gross rent	$1,722	$2,412
Housing units	9,882	8,032
Homeownership rate	83.1%	86.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	65.1%	49.2%
Unemployment rate	3.0%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Reading	Wilmington
Population	25,132 → 25,448 (+1.3%)	23,377 → 23,195 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$132,731 → $163,725 (+23.4%)	$125,922 → $161,473 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$562,800 → $741,100 (+31.7%)	$473,800 → $646,200 (+36.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,354 → $1,722 (+27.2%)	$1,981 → $2,412 (+21.8%)

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

Wilmington

Population

23,37723,195

Median household income

$125,922$161,473

Median home value

$473,800$646,200

Median gross rent

$1,981$2,412

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Reading	Wilmington
Under 5	5.8%	5.9%
5 to 17	17.5%	17.0%
18 to 24	6.1%	8.2%
25 to 34	9.4%	9.1%
35 to 44	12.7%	13.5%
45 to 54	13.8%	14.0%
55 to 64	14.3%	17.6%
65 to 74	12.2%	9.2%
75 and over	8.3%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Reading	Wilmington
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	86.1%
Black or African American	0.3%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	6.2%	4.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.6%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.6%	2.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Reading	Wilmington
No high school diploma	3.8%	3.0%
High school graduate	15.8%	24.2%
Some college or associate's	15.3%	23.5%
Bachelor's degree	34.3%	30.8%
Graduate or professional degree	30.8%	18.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Reading	Wilmington
Drove alone	59.6%	71.2%
Carpooled	6.3%	4.2%
Public transit	5.1%	3.7%
Walked	1.2%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	27.7%	17.9%
Other means	0.1%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Reading	Wilmington
1-unit, detached	71.5%	83.6%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	3.5%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	2.8%
5 to 19 units	7.7%	6.7%
20 or more units	12.0%	3.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Reading	Wilmington
Poverty rate	2.7%	3.0%
Average household size	2.64	2.92
Mean commute (minutes)	31	30
Median year structure built	1960	1978