Kent County vs Washington County

A side-by-side comparison of Kent County and Washington County: population, income, housing, and more.

Kent County and Washington County are counties in Rhode Island. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Kent County has the higher population (170,658 vs 130,073 in Washington County). Washington County has the higher median household income ($102,478 vs $91,278 in Kent County). Washington County has the higher median home value ($469,800 vs $333,900 in Kent County).

Population, income & housing

	Kent County	Washington County
Population	170,658	130,073
Median age	43.6 yrs	45.3 yrs
Median household income	$91,278	$102,478
Median home value	$333,900	$469,800
Median gross rent	$1,264	$1,303
Housing units	76,319	66,068
Homeownership rate	72.1%	76.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.3%	50.5%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Kent County	Washington County
Population	163,869 → 170,658 (+4.1%)	126,060 → 130,073 (+3.2%)
Median household income	$73,521 → $91,278 (+24.2%)	$85,531 → $102,478 (+19.8%)
Median home value	$236,300 → $333,900 (+41.3%)	$343,000 → $469,800 (+37.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,079 → $1,264 (+17.1%)	$1,133 → $1,303 (+15.0%)

Kent County

Population

163,869170,658

Median household income

$73,521$91,278

Median home value

$236,300$333,900

Median gross rent

$1,079$1,264

Washington County

Population

126,060130,073

Median household income

$85,531$102,478

Median home value

$343,000$469,800

Median gross rent

$1,133$1,303

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Kent County	Washington County
Under 5	4.6%	3.6%
5 to 17	13.7%	12.1%
18 to 24	7.0%	14.1%
25 to 34	13.4%	10.1%
35 to 44	13.0%	9.9%
45 to 54	12.9%	11.5%
55 to 64	15.5%	16.1%
65 to 74	11.8%	13.5%
75 and over	8.1%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Kent County	Washington County
White (non-Hispanic)	84.7%	89.6%
Black or African American	1.8%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	2.9%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.6%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	6.4%	3.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Kent County	Washington County
No high school diploma	7.2%	4.7%
High school graduate	28.2%	20.2%
Some college or associate's	30.3%	24.6%
Bachelor's degree	21.3%	28.4%
Graduate or professional degree	13.0%	22.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Kent County	Washington County
Drove alone	79.4%	76.7%
Carpooled	6.9%	5.6%
Public transit	1.0%	1.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	10.6%	13.2%
Other means	1.0%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Kent County	Washington County
1-unit, detached	67.2%	76.7%
1-unit, attached	4.2%	3.5%
2 to 4 units	10.3%	9.1%
5 to 19 units	7.3%	5.2%
20 or more units	9.5%	3.6%
Mobile home & other	1.5%	1.7%

Poverty & households

	Kent County	Washington County
Poverty rate	7.4%	8.0%
Average household size	2.32	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	25	27
Median year structure built	1966	1976