Salem, MA population, income and ZIP codes

Salem city is a small city in Massachusetts, with 44,241 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #30 of 248 ranked by population — larger than 88% of them. The median age here is 38.5 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 Salem city earn a median of $85,137 a year, 8.4% above the national figure of $78,538 and 14% below the $99,537 median for the 222 Massachusetts cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 13.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Salem city is valued at $497,400, 63.9% above the national figure and within a couple of points of the $497,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,800 a month, 28% above the national figure, or roughly $21,600 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.4% 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 5.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 51.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.