Lackawanna vs Tonawanda

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

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

Lackawanna has the higher population (19,779 vs 15,044 in Tonawanda). Tonawanda has the higher median household income ($61,619 vs $48,185 in Lackawanna). Tonawanda has the higher median home value ($159,500 vs $126,500 in Lackawanna).

Population, income & housing

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
Population	19,779	15,044
Median age	38.2 yrs	42.3 yrs
Median household income	$48,185	$61,619
Median home value	$126,500	$159,500
Median gross rent	$823	$776
Housing units	9,204	7,268
Homeownership rate	55.1%	73.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.0%	26.0%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	6.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
Population	17,831 → 19,779 (+10.9%)	14,830 → 15,044 (+1.4%)
Median household income	$38,289 → $48,185 (+25.8%)	$53,115 → $61,619 (+16.0%)
Median home value	$94,700 → $126,500 (+33.6%)	$108,800 → $159,500 (+46.6%)
Median gross rent	$656 → $823 (+25.5%)	$689 → $776 (+12.6%)

Lackawanna

Population

17,83119,779

Median household income

$38,289$48,185

Median home value

$94,700$126,500

Median gross rent

$656$823

Tonawanda

Population

14,83015,044

Median household income

$53,115$61,619

Median home value

$108,800$159,500

Median gross rent

$689$776

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
Under 5	8.4%	4.4%
5 to 17	13.8%	14.8%
18 to 24	8.5%	6.5%
25 to 34	15.5%	13.0%
35 to 44	11.3%	14.8%
45 to 54	13.2%	10.3%
55 to 64	13.3%	15.7%
65 to 74	9.2%	14.1%
75 and over	6.7%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
White (non-Hispanic)	72.1%	89.7%
Black or African American	14.0%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	0.6%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.5%	3.4%
Hispanic or Latino	9.4%	3.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
No high school diploma	13.3%	7.7%
High school graduate	34.2%	31.7%
Some college or associate's	32.5%	34.5%
Bachelor's degree	14.1%	16.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.9%	9.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
Drove alone	74.3%	73.3%
Carpooled	11.5%	9.3%
Public transit	4.5%	0.7%
Walked	1.1%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.7%
Worked from home	6.1%	14.6%
Other means	2.3%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
1-unit, detached	45.1%	75.0%
1-unit, attached	4.9%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	33.4%	13.6%
5 to 19 units	9.1%	3.1%
20 or more units	4.2%	4.7%
Mobile home & other	3.3%	2.7%

Poverty & households

	Lackawanna	Tonawanda
Poverty rate	22.6%	12.0%
Average household size	2.31	2.17
Mean commute (minutes)	20	22
Median year structure built	1954	1951