Wakefield vs Wilmington

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

Wakefield and Wilmington 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 23,195 in Wilmington). Wilmington has the higher median household income ($161,473 vs $130,320 in Wakefield). Wakefield has the higher median home value ($670,100 vs $646,200 in Wilmington).

Population, income & housing

	Wakefield	Wilmington
Population	27,284	23,195
Median age	42.9 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$130,320	$161,473
Median home value	$670,100	$646,200
Median gross rent	$1,872	$2,412
Housing units	11,526	8,032
Homeownership rate	70.4%	86.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.0%	49.2%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Wakefield	Wilmington
Population	26,993 → 27,284 (+1.1%)	23,377 → 23,195 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$100,278 → $130,320 (+30.0%)	$125,922 → $161,473 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$505,800 → $670,100 (+32.5%)	$473,800 → $646,200 (+36.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,364 → $1,872 (+37.2%)	$1,981 → $2,412 (+21.8%)

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

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)

	Wakefield	Wilmington
Under 5	6.8%	5.9%
5 to 17	13.2%	17.0%
18 to 24	5.7%	8.2%
25 to 34	12.6%	9.1%
35 to 44	14.7%	13.5%
45 to 54	12.3%	14.0%
55 to 64	15.5%	17.6%
65 to 74	10.3%	9.2%
75 and over	9.0%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Wakefield	Wilmington
White (non-Hispanic)	87.1%	86.1%
Black or African American	0.8%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	4.8%	4.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.5%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	2.4%	2.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Wakefield	Wilmington
No high school diploma	4.2%	3.0%
High school graduate	21.0%	24.2%
Some college or associate's	17.8%	23.5%
Bachelor's degree	31.9%	30.8%
Graduate or professional degree	25.1%	18.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Wakefield	Wilmington
Drove alone	62.9%	71.2%
Carpooled	5.0%	4.2%
Public transit	6.9%	3.7%
Walked	2.4%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	22.2%	17.9%
Other means	0.6%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Wakefield	Wilmington
1-unit, detached	54.9%	83.6%
1-unit, attached	5.0%	3.5%
2 to 4 units	22.4%	2.8%
5 to 19 units	5.8%	6.7%
20 or more units	12.0%	3.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Wakefield	Wilmington
Poverty rate	4.6%	3.0%
Average household size	2.42	2.92
Mean commute (minutes)	32	30
Median year structure built	1956	1978