Black River vs Watertown

A side-by-side comparison of Black River and Watertown: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Watertown has the higher population (24,574 vs 1,880 in Black River). Black River has the higher median household income ($81,111 vs $49,692 in Watertown). Black River has the higher median home value ($211,000 vs $149,800 in Watertown).

Population, income & housing

	Black River	Watertown
Population	1,880	24,574
Median age	38.1 yrs	35.6 yrs
Median household income	$81,111	$49,692
Median home value	$211,000	$149,800
Median gross rent	$957	$933
Housing units	846	13,234
Homeownership rate	62.9%	41.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.0%	25.9%
Unemployment rate	18.6%	6.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Black River	Watertown
Population	1,246 → 1,880 (+50.9%)	25,622 → 24,574 (-4.1%)
Median household income	$59,750 → $81,111 (+35.8%)	$40,253 → $49,692 (+23.4%)
Median home value	$182,500 → $211,000 (+15.6%)	$133,400 → $149,800 (+12.3%)
Median gross rent	$791 → $957 (+21.0%)	$806 → $933 (+15.8%)

Black River

Population

1,2461,880

Median household income

$59,750$81,111

Median home value

$182,500$211,000

Median gross rent

$791$957

Watertown

Population

25,62224,574

Median household income

$40,253$49,692

Median home value

$133,400$149,800

Median gross rent

$806$933

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Black River	Watertown
Under 5	4.4%	7.0%
5 to 17	21.1%	15.5%
18 to 24	4.3%	8.3%
25 to 34	13.1%	18.2%
35 to 44	23.2%	13.3%
45 to 54	10.6%	10.1%
55 to 64	9.3%	12.2%
65 to 74	9.3%	8.8%
75 and over	4.7%	6.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Black River	Watertown
White (non-Hispanic)	90.3%	80.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	4.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.5%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.8%	6.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.3%	6.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Black River	Watertown
No high school diploma	3.6%	10.6%
High school graduate	34.1%	33.9%
Some college or associate's	28.4%	29.5%
Bachelor's degree	23.2%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	10.8%	11.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Black River	Watertown
Drove alone	90.4%	77.8%
Carpooled	4.8%	7.4%
Public transit	0.0%	1.9%
Walked	0.2%	6.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	3.6%	4.0%
Other means	1.0%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Black River	Watertown
1-unit, detached	73.5%	43.9%
1-unit, attached	0.4%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	7.2%	29.2%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	10.4%
20 or more units	9.9%	11.9%
Mobile home & other	4.6%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Black River	Watertown
Poverty rate	13.7%	20.8%
Average household size	2.43	2.07
Mean commute (minutes)	16	16
Median year structure built	1971	1944