Franklin Town vs Needham

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

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

Franklin Town has the higher population (33,067 vs 32,059 in Needham). Needham has the higher median household income ($212,241 vs $142,788 in Franklin Town). Needham has the higher median home value ($1,146,000 vs $567,100 in Franklin Town).

Population, income & housing

	Franklin Town	Needham
Population	33,067	32,059
Median age	42.1 yrs	43.0 yrs
Median household income	$142,788	$212,241
Median home value	$567,100	$1,146,000
Median gross rent	$1,856	$2,412
Housing units	12,889	11,754
Homeownership rate	78.4%	84.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	56.4%	80.8%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Franklin Town	Needham
Population	33,256 → 33,067 (-0.6%)	30,970 → 32,059 (+3.5%)
Median household income	$122,607 → $142,788 (+16.5%)	$165,547 → $212,241 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$432,700 → $567,100 (+31.1%)	$855,300 → $1,146,000 (+34.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,378 → $1,856 (+34.7%)	$1,483 → $2,412 (+62.6%)

Franklin Town

Population

33,25633,067

Median household income

$122,607$142,788

Median home value

$432,700$567,100

Median gross rent

$1,378$1,856

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)

	Franklin Town	Needham
Under 5	3.9%	4.7%
5 to 17	16.0%	23.5%
18 to 24	11.4%	6.2%
25 to 34	11.3%	4.8%
35 to 44	11.6%	14.3%
45 to 54	15.8%	15.5%
55 to 64	15.9%	13.5%
65 to 74	8.9%	9.3%
75 and over	5.1%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Franklin Town	Needham
White (non-Hispanic)	83.8%	80.9%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	6.1%	10.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.7%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	5.0%	3.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Franklin Town	Needham
No high school diploma	2.8%	2.7%
High school graduate	17.7%	7.0%
Some college or associate's	23.0%	9.5%
Bachelor's degree	32.0%	29.7%
Graduate or professional degree	24.4%	51.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Franklin Town	Needham
Drove alone	67.2%	57.5%
Carpooled	4.7%	3.8%
Public transit	3.3%	7.6%
Walked	1.7%	1.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	21.5%	28.8%
Other means	1.7%	0.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Franklin Town	Needham
1-unit, detached	62.9%	77.3%
1-unit, attached	9.6%	4.7%
2 to 4 units	8.4%	3.6%
5 to 19 units	8.6%	3.2%
20 or more units	10.2%	11.1%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Franklin Town	Needham
Poverty rate	5.5%	3.8%
Average household size	2.59	2.75
Mean commute (minutes)	34	29
Median year structure built	1985	1964