Brookhaven vs Cold Spring Harbor

A side-by-side comparison of Brookhaven and Cold Spring Harbor: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cold Spring Harbor has the higher population (3,123 vs 3,080 in Brookhaven). Cold Spring Harbor has the higher median household income ($250,001 vs $95,345 in Brookhaven). Cold Spring Harbor has the higher median home value ($1,466,800 vs $577,000 in Brookhaven).

Population, income & housing

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
Population	3,080	3,123
Median age	49.9 yrs	36.8 yrs
Median household income	$95,345	$250,001
Median home value	$577,000	$1,466,800
Median gross rent	$1,908	—
Housing units	1,118	1,076
Homeownership rate	74.2%	96.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	39.4%	77.7%
Unemployment rate	12.9%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
Population	3,455 → 3,080 (-10.9%)	4,932 → 3,123 (-36.7%)
Median household income	$68,884 → $95,345 (+38.4%)	$202,208 → $250,001 (+23.6%)
Median home value	$417,100 → $577,000 (+38.3%)	$832,200 → $1,466,800 (+76.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,523 → $1,908 (+25.3%)	$2,306 → $2,674 (+16.0%)

Brookhaven

Population

3,4553,080

Median household income

$68,884$95,345

Median home value

$417,100$577,000

Median gross rent

$1,523$1,908

Cold Spring Harbor

Population

4,9323,123

Median household income

$202,208$250,001

Median home value

$832,200$1,466,800

Median gross rent

$2,306$2,674

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
Under 5	4.0%	10.5%
5 to 17	15.4%	16.5%
18 to 24	8.8%	9.6%
25 to 34	8.6%	11.7%
35 to 44	9.7%	8.8%
45 to 54	10.4%	15.5%
55 to 64	17.8%	14.4%
65 to 74	11.0%	8.7%
75 and over	14.3%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
White (non-Hispanic)	78.8%	87.6%
Black or African American	5.9%	0.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	0.4%	4.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	2.1%
Two or more races	2.7%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	12.0%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
No high school diploma	6.7%	2.2%
High school graduate	29.4%	6.5%
Some college or associate's	24.5%	13.6%
Bachelor's degree	22.1%	43.7%
Graduate or professional degree	17.3%	34.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
Drove alone	77.6%	52.4%
Carpooled	6.6%	1.2%
Public transit	2.9%	12.5%
Walked	0.0%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	10.9%	25.5%
Other means	2.0%	5.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
1-unit, detached	89.4%	94.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	5.5%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	10.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Brookhaven	Cold Spring Harbor
Poverty rate	17.5%	1.6%
Average household size	2.40	3.04
Mean commute (minutes)	27	36
Median year structure built	1965	1959