Barnstable County vs Nantucket County

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

Barnstable County and Nantucket 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 14,299 in Nantucket County). Nantucket County has the higher median household income ($119,750 vs $94,452 in Barnstable County). Nantucket County has the higher median home value ($1,387,000 vs $575,900 in Barnstable County).

Population, income & housing

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
Population	230,073	14,299
Median age	55.1 yrs	40.8 yrs
Median household income	$94,452	$119,750
Median home value	$575,900	$1,387,000
Median gross rent	$1,596	$2,070
Housing units	165,661	12,449
Homeownership rate	80.6%	76.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	47.4%	58.4%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
Population	213,496 → 230,073 (+7.8%)	11,168 → 14,299 (+28.0%)
Median household income	$74,336 → $94,452 (+27.1%)	$107,717 → $119,750 (+11.2%)
Median home value	$393,500 → $575,900 (+46.4%)	$1,084,700 → $1,387,000 (+27.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,311 → $1,596 (+21.7%)	$1,764 → $2,070 (+17.3%)

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

Nantucket County

Population

11,16814,299

Median household income

$107,717$119,750

Median home value

$1,084,700$1,387,000

Median gross rent

$1,764$2,070

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
Under 5	3.5%	4.8%
5 to 17	11.0%	15.8%
18 to 24	6.5%	6.4%
25 to 34	9.1%	10.9%
35 to 44	9.2%	18.9%
45 to 54	10.7%	14.4%
55 to 64	17.9%	13.4%
65 to 74	18.6%	9.7%
75 and over	13.7%	5.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	69.1%
Black or African American	2.7%	9.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	1.5%	1.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	4.8%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	3.6%	16.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
No high school diploma	3.6%	4.0%
High school graduate	21.4%	16.0%
Some college or associate's	27.5%	21.6%
Bachelor's degree	25.8%	37.1%
Graduate or professional degree	21.6%	21.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
Drove alone	74.2%	69.9%
Carpooled	6.5%	7.6%
Public transit	1.2%	0.8%
Walked	1.7%	5.9%
Bicycle	0.6%	2.7%
Worked from home	14.6%	11.8%
Other means	1.2%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
1-unit, detached	81.7%	83.7%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	6.5%
2 to 4 units	5.8%	7.4%
5 to 19 units	3.6%	0.9%
20 or more units	3.2%	1.1%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Barnstable County	Nantucket County
Poverty rate	7.4%	3.0%
Average household size	2.21	2.78
Mean commute (minutes)	25	15
Median year structure built	1976	1983