Barnstable County vs Dukes County

A side-by-side comparison of Barnstable County and Dukes County: population, income, housing, and more.

Barnstable County and Dukes County are counties in Massachusetts. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Barnstable County has the higher population (230,073 vs 20,751 in Dukes County). Dukes County has the higher median household income ($102,348 vs $94,452 in Barnstable County). Dukes County has the higher median home value ($1,104,100 vs $575,900 in Barnstable County).

Population, income & housing

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
Population	230,073	20,751
Median age	55.1 yrs	50.4 yrs
Median household income	$94,452	$102,348
Median home value	$575,900	$1,104,100
Median gross rent	$1,596	$1,371
Housing units	165,661	17,713
Homeownership rate	80.6%	74.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	47.4%	49.0%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	6.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
Population	213,496 → 230,073 (+7.8%)	17,312 → 20,751 (+19.9%)
Median household income	$74,336 → $94,452 (+27.1%)	$71,811 → $102,348 (+42.5%)
Median home value	$393,500 → $575,900 (+46.4%)	$699,500 → $1,104,100 (+57.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,311 → $1,596 (+21.7%)	$1,459 → $1,371 (-6.0%)

Barnstable County

Population

213,496230,073

Median household income

$74,336$94,452

Median home value

$393,500$575,900

Median gross rent

$1,311$1,596

Dukes County

Population

17,31220,751

Median household income

$71,811$102,348

Median home value

$699,500$1,104,100

Median gross rent

$1,459$1,371

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
Under 5	3.5%	4.0%
5 to 17	11.0%	13.3%
18 to 24	6.5%	5.9%
25 to 34	9.1%	10.4%
35 to 44	9.2%	10.5%
45 to 54	10.7%	11.8%
55 to 64	17.9%	18.0%
65 to 74	18.6%	15.7%
75 and over	13.7%	10.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	81.1%
Black or African American	2.7%	3.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	1.1%
Asian	1.5%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.2%	2.5%
Two or more races	4.8%	7.4%
Hispanic or Latino	3.6%	3.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
No high school diploma	3.6%	4.8%
High school graduate	21.4%	22.1%
Some college or associate's	27.5%	24.1%
Bachelor's degree	25.8%	26.2%
Graduate or professional degree	21.6%	22.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
Drove alone	74.2%	64.6%
Carpooled	6.5%	7.7%
Public transit	1.2%	1.6%
Walked	1.7%	6.5%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.6%
Worked from home	14.6%	18.4%
Other means	1.2%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
1-unit, detached	81.7%	88.4%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	2.7%
2 to 4 units	5.8%	5.7%
5 to 19 units	3.6%	2.4%
20 or more units	3.2%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Barnstable County	Dukes County
Poverty rate	7.4%	5.4%
Average household size	2.21	2.78
Mean commute (minutes)	25	17
Median year structure built	1976	1981