Prospect Park vs Swarthmore

A side-by-side comparison of Prospect Park and Swarthmore: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Swarthmore has the higher population (6,524 vs 6,402 in Prospect Park). Swarthmore has the higher median household income ($146,992 vs $65,774 in Prospect Park). Swarthmore has the higher median home value ($557,900 vs $239,700 in Prospect Park).

Population, income & housing

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
Population	6,402	6,524
Median age	38.0 yrs	34.4 yrs
Median household income	$65,774	$146,992
Median home value	$239,700	$557,900
Median gross rent	$1,154	$1,493
Housing units	2,671	2,243
Homeownership rate	57.3%	74.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.2%	79.2%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	8.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
Population	6,483 → 6,402 (-1.2%)	6,318 → 6,524 (+3.3%)
Median household income	$60,569 → $65,774 (+8.6%)	$107,778 → $146,992 (+36.4%)
Median home value	$191,700 → $239,700 (+25.0%)	$415,200 → $557,900 (+34.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,043 → $1,154 (+10.6%)	$1,021 → $1,493 (+46.2%)

Prospect Park

Population

6,4836,402

Median household income

$60,569$65,774

Median home value

$191,700$239,700

Median gross rent

$1,043$1,154

Swarthmore

Population

6,3186,524

Median household income

$107,778$146,992

Median home value

$415,200$557,900

Median gross rent

$1,021$1,493

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
Under 5	7.3%	6.5%
5 to 17	12.0%	12.8%
18 to 24	7.3%	26.1%
25 to 34	19.8%	6.2%
35 to 44	11.6%	12.3%
45 to 54	12.3%	10.0%
55 to 64	14.9%	9.7%
65 to 74	10.3%	9.5%
75 and over	4.5%	6.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
White (non-Hispanic)	78.5%	71.1%
Black or African American	10.5%	10.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	3.1%	7.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.5%
Two or more races	7.1%	5.0%
Hispanic or Latino	0.6%	4.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
No high school diploma	7.0%	0.8%
High school graduate	31.0%	7.1%
Some college or associate's	38.7%	12.8%
Bachelor's degree	16.8%	28.1%
Graduate or professional degree	6.4%	51.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
Drove alone	70.9%	45.5%
Carpooled	11.5%	5.0%
Public transit	5.4%	7.5%
Walked	2.3%	21.8%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.5%
Worked from home	9.3%	17.6%
Other means	0.0%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
1-unit, detached	37.3%	55.3%
1-unit, attached	22.5%	6.1%
2 to 4 units	24.7%	5.9%
5 to 19 units	12.5%	7.9%
20 or more units	2.9%	20.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	4.5%

Poverty & households

	Prospect Park	Swarthmore
Poverty rate	13.4%	2.8%
Average household size	2.45	2.30
Mean commute (minutes)	21	27
Median year structure built	1948	1943