Fort Drum vs Watertown

A side-by-side comparison of Fort Drum and Watertown: population, income, housing, and more.

Fort Drum 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 16,124 in Fort Drum). Fort Drum has the higher median household income ($63,194 vs $49,692 in Watertown). Since 2019, Fort Drum's population has grown faster (+23.8% vs -4.1%).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Drum	Watertown
Population	16,124	24,574
Median age	23.4 yrs	35.6 yrs
Median household income	$63,194	$49,692
Median home value	—	$149,800
Median gross rent	$1,563	$933
Housing units	5,293	13,234
Homeownership rate	3.3%	41.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.2%	25.9%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	6.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Drum	Watertown
Population	13,020 → 16,124 (+23.8%)	25,622 → 24,574 (-4.1%)
Median household income	$50,711 → $63,194 (+24.6%)	$40,253 → $49,692 (+23.4%)
Median home value	—	$133,400 → $149,800 (+12.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,393 → $1,563 (+12.2%)	$806 → $933 (+15.8%)

Fort Drum

Population

13,02016,124

Median household income

$50,711$63,194

Median gross rent

$1,393$1,563

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)

	Fort Drum	Watertown
Under 5	14.6%	7.0%
5 to 17	15.2%	15.5%
18 to 24	26.4%	8.3%
25 to 34	28.5%	18.2%
35 to 44	11.3%	13.3%
45 to 54	3.4%	10.1%
55 to 64	0.4%	12.2%
65 to 74	0.1%	8.8%
75 and over	0.0%	6.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Drum	Watertown
White (non-Hispanic)	58.2%	80.2%
Black or African American	11.8%	4.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	4.4%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.6%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.8%	6.3%
Hispanic or Latino	19.4%	6.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Drum	Watertown
No high school diploma	2.3%	10.6%
High school graduate	18.4%	33.9%
Some college or associate's	42.1%	29.5%
Bachelor's degree	30.3%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.9%	11.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Drum	Watertown
Drove alone	65.8%	77.8%
Carpooled	7.9%	7.4%
Public transit	0.0%	1.9%
Walked	10.4%	6.1%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.5%
Worked from home	14.1%	4.0%
Other means	1.7%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Drum	Watertown
1-unit, detached	12.7%	43.9%
1-unit, attached	40.4%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	36.2%	29.2%
5 to 19 units	4.6%	10.4%
20 or more units	6.1%	11.9%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Fort Drum	Watertown
Poverty rate	8.2%	20.8%
Average household size	2.74	2.07
Mean commute (minutes)	11	16
Median year structure built	2003	1944