Pennside vs Reading

A side-by-side comparison of Pennside and Reading: population, income, housing, and more.

Pennside and Reading are places in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Reading has the higher population (94,836 vs 5,406 in Pennside). Pennside has the higher median household income ($77,411 vs $45,599 in Reading). Pennside has the higher median home value ($195,000 vs $109,800 in Reading).

Population, income & housing

	Pennside	Reading
Population	5,406	94,836
Median age	39.0 yrs	31.7 yrs
Median household income	$77,411	$45,599
Median home value	$195,000	$109,800
Median gross rent	$1,289	$1,018
Housing units	2,352	36,289
Homeownership rate	77.7%	39.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.7%	11.7%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	12.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Pennside	Reading
Population	4,304 → 5,406 (+25.6%)	88,232 → 94,836 (+7.5%)
Median household income	$65,295 → $77,411 (+18.6%)	$32,176 → $45,599 (+41.7%)
Median home value	$153,000 → $195,000 (+27.5%)	$73,200 → $109,800 (+50.0%)
Median gross rent	$960 → $1,289 (+34.3%)	$811 → $1,018 (+25.5%)

Pennside

Population

4,3045,406

Median household income

$65,295$77,411

Median home value

$153,000$195,000

Median gross rent

$960$1,289

Reading

Population

88,23294,836

Median household income

$32,176$45,599

Median home value

$73,200$109,800

Median gross rent

$811$1,018

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Pennside	Reading
Under 5	6.0%	7.7%
5 to 17	15.1%	20.7%
18 to 24	4.2%	12.2%
25 to 34	21.5%	13.7%
35 to 44	8.6%	12.8%
45 to 54	10.5%	11.5%
55 to 64	17.6%	10.7%
65 to 74	8.9%	6.6%
75 and over	7.5%	4.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Pennside	Reading
White (non-Hispanic)	67.2%	20.3%
Black or African American	2.8%	7.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.5%
Two or more races	7.1%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	22.7%	68.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Pennside	Reading
No high school diploma	7.4%	27.3%
High school graduate	41.5%	38.7%
Some college or associate's	26.4%	22.3%
Bachelor's degree	13.0%	8.2%
Graduate or professional degree	11.7%	3.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Pennside	Reading
Drove alone	81.4%	63.7%
Carpooled	8.8%	15.8%
Public transit	0.4%	3.9%
Walked	1.5%	5.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	6.4%	5.0%
Other means	1.5%	6.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Pennside	Reading
1-unit, detached	57.7%	12.3%
1-unit, attached	18.0%	52.2%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	18.5%
5 to 19 units	6.2%	7.2%
20 or more units	5.7%	9.4%
Mobile home & other	5.0%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Pennside	Reading
Poverty rate	5.8%	27.0%
Average household size	2.45	2.79
Mean commute (minutes)	26	24
Median year structure built	1955	1938