Dedham vs Needham

A side-by-side comparison of Dedham and Needham: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Needham has the higher population (32,059 vs 25,109 in Dedham). Needham has the higher median household income ($212,241 vs $124,375 in Dedham). Needham has the higher median home value ($1,146,000 vs $630,400 in Dedham).

Population, income & housing

	Dedham	Needham
Population	25,109	32,059
Median age	43.5 yrs	43.0 yrs
Median household income	$124,375	$212,241
Median home value	$630,400	$1,146,000
Median gross rent	$2,058	$2,412
Housing units	10,648	11,754
Homeownership rate	72.7%	84.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	55.1%	80.8%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Dedham	Needham
Population	25,283 → 25,109 (-0.7%)	30,970 → 32,059 (+3.5%)
Median household income	$100,757 → $124,375 (+23.4%)	$165,547 → $212,241 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$461,200 → $630,400 (+36.7%)	$855,300 → $1,146,000 (+34.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,669 → $2,058 (+23.3%)	$1,483 → $2,412 (+62.6%)

Dedham

Population

25,28325,109

Median household income

$100,757$124,375

Median home value

$461,200$630,400

Median gross rent

$1,669$2,058

Needham

Population

30,97032,059

Median household income

$165,547$212,241

Median home value

$855,300$1,146,000

Median gross rent

$1,483$2,412

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Dedham	Needham
Under 5	5.1%	4.7%
5 to 17	13.6%	23.5%
18 to 24	7.9%	6.2%
25 to 34	11.9%	4.8%
35 to 44	13.4%	14.3%
45 to 54	13.6%	15.5%
55 to 64	14.3%	13.5%
65 to 74	10.6%	9.3%
75 and over	9.7%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Dedham	Needham
White (non-Hispanic)	80.4%	80.9%
Black or African American	4.8%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.1%	10.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.3%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.7%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	7.5%	3.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Dedham	Needham
No high school diploma	5.9%	2.7%
High school graduate	20.4%	7.0%
Some college or associate's	18.6%	9.5%
Bachelor's degree	29.2%	29.7%
Graduate or professional degree	25.9%	51.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Dedham	Needham
Drove alone	65.2%	57.5%
Carpooled	6.9%	3.8%
Public transit	5.4%	7.6%
Walked	2.6%	1.9%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	18.6%	28.8%
Other means	0.9%	0.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Dedham	Needham
1-unit, detached	64.7%	77.3%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	4.7%
2 to 4 units	10.2%	3.6%
5 to 19 units	6.2%	3.2%
20 or more units	13.3%	11.1%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Dedham	Needham
Poverty rate	4.6%	3.8%
Average household size	2.37	2.75
Mean commute (minutes)	30	29
Median year structure built	1955	1964