Brockton, Massachusetts

Area Profile

105,386 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Brockton, in Plymouth County.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 26% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2947th of 3,904 published cities44
Schools2589th of 2,668 published cities12
Growth2234th of 2,973 published cities35
Housing affordability3373rd of 4,223 published cities60
Climate3171st of 4,223 published cities62
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 4,182 published cities89
AccessTop 46% of 4,226 published cities93
Economic stabilityTop 48% of 4,226 published cities61
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Brockton in the bottom 25%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Brockton in the top 13% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
105,386
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$80,115
Top 34% nationally
Density
4,940/sq mi
21.3 sq mi of land
Median age
36.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Plymouth County
Massachusetts
Metro area
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Nearest major airport
BOS
19 mi · General Edward Lawrence Logan Intl
Median home value
$437,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 22% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 51,049 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,930$80,115Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,515$35,830Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.5%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute34.1 minTop 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.3%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment51,049Top 49%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.7%Top 39%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.5%Bottom 35%June 2026
Labor force53,815Top 49%June 2026
Labor force participation67.8%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$89,620Top 10%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$66,620Top 10%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 22%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/069.04.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $80,115 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides72,420$40,910
General and Operations Managers70,950$133,800
Registered Nurses64,240$106,180
Retail Salespersons64,150$36,850
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,130$36,290
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners43,160$46,550

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

10% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 21% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
24
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
10.5%
Bottom 4% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
21.3%
Bottom 2% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Brockton HighBrockton3,59817.1
Edgar B DavisBrockton1,00918.07%19%
Louis F Angelo ElementaryBrockton87516.226%37%
Oscar F RaymondBrockton86418.04%13%
Manthala George Jr. SchoolBrockton83818.24%17%
Mary E. Baker SchoolBrockton76914.513%27%
Dr W Arnone Community SchoolBrockton76317.74%11%
New Heights Charter School of Brockton · charterNew Heights Charter School of Brockton73415.012%27%
HancockBrockton68016.29%24%
Plouffe Middle SchoolBrockton62714.317%27%
DowneyBrockton60214.77%17%
John F KennedyBrockton53915.413%27%

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Massachusetts’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,641 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,641
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$437,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.46Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.4%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±71337,730Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$52$1,641Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,310$437,500Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.6%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.5%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
35/ 100
Ranks 2234 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 105,788 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
41
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 19% nationally
Year over year
−11%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024106k105k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202021202220232024202514331
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+55%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 53.3 inches, including 69.3 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 37, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BLUE HILL, 10.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation53.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall69.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
53
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

89 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are coastal flooding, hurricane and earthquake.

Coastal floodingHigh
HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, strong wind, lightning, ice storm, landslide, cold wave, wildfire, tornado, winter weather, hail.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Plymouth County records 2.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 4.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.9 per 100,000 residents in Plymouth County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Plymouth County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Brockton rather than Brockton itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS19 mi10,083 ft
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD32 mi8,700 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT62 mi9,250 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
54
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Other cities in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BostonSuffolk County666,44264vs Brockton
CambridgeMiddlesex County118,79670vs Brockton
LowellMiddlesex County118,36862vs Brockton
QuincyNorfolk County102,11470vs Brockton
LynnEssex County101,70955vs Brockton
NewtonMiddlesex County89,04475vs Brockton
LawrenceEssex County88,73647vs Brockton
SomervilleMiddlesex County81,03667vs Brockton
FraminghamMiddlesex County72,39966vs Brockton
HaverhillEssex County67,69858vs Brockton
MaldenMiddlesex County65,90665vs Brockton
WalthamMiddlesex County64,90268vs Brockton

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Brockton

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0230168,969$74,21452
0230236,417$92,27457