Medford, MA population, income and ZIP codes

Medford city is a small city in Massachusetts, with 59,062 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #21 of 248 ranked by population — larger than 91% of them. The median age here is 36.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Medford city earn a median of $118,089 a year, 50.4% above the national figure of $78,538 and 19% above the $99,537 median for the 222 Massachusetts cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 8.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Medford city is valued at $715,500, 135.8% above the national figure and 44% above the $497,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,477 a month, 76.2% above the national figure, or roughly $29,724 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 6.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 53.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Home values sit at 6.1× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.