Reading vs Winchester

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

Reading and Winchester 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 22,862 in Winchester). Winchester has the higher median household income ($218,176 vs $163,725 in Reading). Winchester has the higher median home value ($1,181,700 vs $741,100 in Reading).

Population, income & housing

	Reading	Winchester
Population	25,448	22,862
Median age	44.1 yrs	43.0 yrs
Median household income	$163,725	$218,176
Median home value	$741,100	$1,181,700
Median gross rent	$1,722	$2,271
Housing units	9,882	8,283
Homeownership rate	83.1%	83.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	65.1%	78.4%
Unemployment rate	3.0%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Reading	Winchester
Population	25,132 → 25,448 (+1.3%)	22,738 → 22,862 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$132,731 → $163,725 (+23.4%)	$169,623 → $218,176 (+28.6%)
Median home value	$562,800 → $741,100 (+31.7%)	$943,800 → $1,181,700 (+25.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,354 → $1,722 (+27.2%)	$1,900 → $2,271 (+19.5%)

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

Winchester

Population

22,73822,862

Median household income

$169,623$218,176

Median home value

$943,800$1,181,700

Median gross rent

$1,900$2,271

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Reading	Winchester
Under 5	5.8%	5.4%
5 to 17	17.5%	22.9%
18 to 24	6.1%	4.7%
25 to 34	9.4%	6.2%
35 to 44	12.7%	13.4%
45 to 54	13.8%	16.6%
55 to 64	14.3%	13.0%
65 to 74	12.2%	9.1%
75 and over	8.3%	8.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Reading	Winchester
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	71.7%
Black or African American	0.3%	3.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	6.2%	15.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.7%
Two or more races	2.6%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	4.6%	3.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Reading	Winchester
No high school diploma	3.8%	2.7%
High school graduate	15.8%	9.0%
Some college or associate's	15.3%	9.9%
Bachelor's degree	34.3%	27.6%
Graduate or professional degree	30.8%	50.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Reading	Winchester
Drove alone	59.6%	52.3%
Carpooled	6.3%	4.4%
Public transit	5.1%	7.1%
Walked	1.2%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.0%
Worked from home	27.7%	31.6%
Other means	0.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Reading	Winchester
1-unit, detached	71.5%	70.9%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	7.1%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	7.9%
5 to 19 units	7.7%	5.2%
20 or more units	12.0%	8.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Reading	Winchester
Poverty rate	2.7%	3.9%
Average household size	2.64	2.80
Mean commute (minutes)	31	31
Median year structure built	1960	1954