Buffalo vs Lackawanna

A side-by-side comparison of Buffalo and Lackawanna: population, income, housing, and more.

Buffalo and Lackawanna are places in New York. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Buffalo has the higher population (276,397 vs 19,779 in Lackawanna). Lackawanna has the higher median household income ($48,185 vs $48,050 in Buffalo). Buffalo has the higher median home value ($152,300 vs $126,500 in Lackawanna).

Population, income & housing

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
Population	276,397	19,779
Median age	34.3 yrs	38.2 yrs
Median household income	$48,050	$48,185
Median home value	$152,300	$126,500
Median gross rent	$989	$823
Housing units	136,533	9,204
Homeownership rate	42.7%	55.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.3%	20.0%
Unemployment rate	7.2%	5.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
Population	256,480 → 276,397 (+7.8%)	17,831 → 19,779 (+10.9%)
Median household income	$37,354 → $48,050 (+28.6%)	$38,289 → $48,185 (+25.8%)
Median home value	$89,800 → $152,300 (+69.6%)	$94,700 → $126,500 (+33.6%)
Median gross rent	$776 → $989 (+27.4%)	$656 → $823 (+25.5%)

Buffalo

Population

256,480276,397

Median household income

$37,354$48,050

Median home value

$89,800$152,300

Median gross rent

$776$989

Lackawanna

Population

17,83119,779

Median household income

$38,289$48,185

Median home value

$94,700$126,500

Median gross rent

$656$823

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
Under 5	6.1%	8.4%
5 to 17	16.4%	13.8%
18 to 24	11.0%	8.5%
25 to 34	17.5%	15.5%
35 to 44	12.5%	11.3%
45 to 54	10.6%	13.2%
55 to 64	12.1%	13.3%
65 to 74	8.9%	9.2%
75 and over	4.9%	6.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
White (non-Hispanic)	42.7%	72.1%
Black or African American	31.8%	14.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.1%
Asian	8.2%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.9%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	12.7%	9.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
No high school diploma	13.4%	13.3%
High school graduate	27.2%	34.2%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	32.5%
Bachelor's degree	16.9%	14.1%
Graduate or professional degree	13.4%	5.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
Drove alone	64.5%	74.3%
Carpooled	9.9%	11.5%
Public transit	8.5%	4.5%
Walked	4.7%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.1%
Worked from home	9.6%	6.1%
Other means	2.3%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
1-unit, detached	36.1%	45.1%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	4.9%
2 to 4 units	43.2%	33.4%
5 to 19 units	6.2%	9.1%
20 or more units	10.8%	4.2%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	3.3%

Poverty & households

	Buffalo	Lackawanna
Poverty rate	27.4%	22.6%
Average household size	2.24	2.31
Mean commute (minutes)	20	20
Median year structure built	1938	1954