Gardner vs Worcester

A side-by-side comparison of Gardner and Worcester: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Worcester has the higher population (205,501 vs 21,075 in Gardner). Worcester has the higher median household income ($67,544 vs $62,948 in Gardner). Worcester has the higher median home value ($339,500 vs $271,300 in Gardner).

Population, income & housing

	Gardner	Worcester
Population	21,075	205,501
Median age	43.5 yrs	34.1 yrs
Median household income	$62,948	$67,544
Median home value	$271,300	$339,500
Median gross rent	$1,071	$1,415
Housing units	9,487	85,371
Homeownership rate	56.7%	42.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.8%	34.1%
Unemployment rate	5.7%	6.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Gardner	Worcester
Population	20,610 → 21,075 (+2.3%)	185,143 → 205,501 (+11.0%)
Median household income	$49,679 → $62,948 (+26.7%)	$48,139 → $67,544 (+40.3%)
Median home value	$185,700 → $271,300 (+46.1%)	$227,100 → $339,500 (+49.5%)
Median gross rent	$838 → $1,071 (+27.8%)	$1,095 → $1,415 (+29.2%)

Gardner

Population

20,61021,075

Median household income

$49,679$62,948

Median home value

$185,700$271,300

Median gross rent

$838$1,071

Worcester

Population

185,143205,501

Median household income

$48,139$67,544

Median home value

$227,100$339,500

Median gross rent

$1,095$1,415

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Gardner	Worcester
Under 5	5.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	13.4%	14.2%
18 to 24	5.4%	14.6%
25 to 34	14.8%	17.0%
35 to 44	13.6%	12.4%
45 to 54	11.1%	11.2%
55 to 64	17.4%	11.8%
65 to 74	11.3%	7.9%
75 and over	7.9%	5.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Gardner	Worcester
White (non-Hispanic)	79.8%	50.5%
Black or African American	3.6%	11.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	2.8%	6.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	1.3%
Two or more races	4.2%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	9.4%	24.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Gardner	Worcester
No high school diploma	12.6%	14.3%
High school graduate	33.9%	27.9%
Some college or associate's	30.7%	23.7%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	20.1%
Graduate or professional degree	7.1%	14.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Gardner	Worcester
Drove alone	69.5%	65.8%
Carpooled	10.3%	11.6%
Public transit	2.2%	2.7%
Walked	2.3%	5.5%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.2%
Worked from home	12.0%	10.7%
Other means	3.4%	3.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Gardner	Worcester
1-unit, detached	47.5%	32.0%
1-unit, attached	3.1%	6.1%
2 to 4 units	23.9%	33.5%
5 to 19 units	10.2%	13.9%
20 or more units	13.9%	14.1%
Mobile home & other	1.5%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Gardner	Worcester
Poverty rate	14.3%	19.8%
Average household size	2.23	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	31	25
Median year structure built	1953	1951