Cranston vs Pawtucket

A side-by-side comparison of Cranston and Pawtucket: population, income, housing, and more.

Cranston and Pawtucket are places in Rhode Island. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Cranston has the higher population (82,632 vs 75,280 in Pawtucket). Cranston has the higher median household income ($87,716 vs $67,436 in Pawtucket). Cranston has the higher median home value ($348,800 vs $286,200 in Pawtucket).

Population, income & housing

	Cranston	Pawtucket
Population	82,632	75,280
Median age	40.1 yrs	37.4 yrs
Median household income	$87,716	$67,436
Median home value	$348,800	$286,200
Median gross rent	$1,332	$1,152
Housing units	33,733	33,354
Homeownership rate	67.3%	48.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.8%	23.5%
Unemployment rate	5.8%	7.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cranston	Pawtucket
Population	81,254 → 82,632 (+1.7%)	71,844 → 75,280 (+4.8%)
Median household income	$72,017 → $87,716 (+21.8%)	$50,476 → $67,436 (+33.6%)
Median home value	$243,500 → $348,800 (+43.2%)	$194,600 → $286,200 (+47.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,070 → $1,332 (+24.5%)	$920 → $1,152 (+25.2%)

Cranston

Population

81,25482,632

Median household income

$72,017$87,716

Median home value

$243,500$348,800

Median gross rent

$1,070$1,332

Pawtucket

Population

71,84475,280

Median household income

$50,476$67,436

Median home value

$194,600$286,200

Median gross rent

$920$1,152

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cranston	Pawtucket
Under 5	5.1%	5.8%
5 to 17	15.0%	15.4%
18 to 24	7.0%	7.8%
25 to 34	14.9%	16.9%
35 to 44	15.1%	14.6%
45 to 54	11.2%	12.4%
55 to 64	14.6%	12.9%
65 to 74	9.8%	8.6%
75 and over	7.3%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cranston	Pawtucket
White (non-Hispanic)	66.8%	47.7%
Black or African American	5.0%	12.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.2%
Asian	7.2%	1.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	3.1%
Two or more races	3.6%	10.4%
Hispanic or Latino	16.7%	24.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cranston	Pawtucket
No high school diploma	9.4%	17.5%
High school graduate	25.8%	32.2%
Some college or associate's	29.1%	26.8%
Bachelor's degree	21.6%	15.1%
Graduate or professional degree	14.2%	8.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cranston	Pawtucket
Drove alone	74.8%	74.9%
Carpooled	9.6%	9.1%
Public transit	1.6%	3.9%
Walked	1.1%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.3%
Worked from home	10.9%	8.5%
Other means	2.0%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cranston	Pawtucket
1-unit, detached	62.7%	33.8%
1-unit, attached	3.0%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	18.8%	40.9%
5 to 19 units	5.8%	11.5%
20 or more units	9.5%	10.1%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	Cranston	Pawtucket
Poverty rate	8.7%	13.6%
Average household size	2.42	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	24	26
Median year structure built	1957	1947