Leominster, Massachusetts

Area Profile

43,909 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Leominster, in Worcester County.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 36% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 46% of 3,904 published cities58
Schools1591st of 2,668 published cities44
Growth1504th of 2,973 published cities50
Housing affordability2182nd of 4,223 published cities80
Climate3636th of 4,223 published cities60
Physical resilienceTop 16% of 4,182 published cities85
Access3040th of 4,226 published cities84
Economic stabilityTop 33% of 4,226 published cities68
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $83,816, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.9 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Leominster in the top 16% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
43,909
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$83,816
Top 30% nationally
Density
1,523/sq mi
28.8 sq mi of land
Median age
43.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Worcester County
Massachusetts
Metro area
Worcester, MA
Nearest major airport
MHT
33 mi · Manchester Boston Rgnl
Median home value
$380,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 23,033 employed residents.

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,939$83,816Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,065$47,179Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.2%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.0 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.5%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,033Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.6%Top 26%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 39%June 2026
Labor force24,098Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force participation67.9%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$73,600Top 31%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$57,830Top 27%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.03.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% 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
202120222023202484k70k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $83,816 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 — Worcester, MA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides14,720$40,870
Registered Nurses10,070$100,240
Retail Salespersons8,830$36,220
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,800$34,610
General and Operations Managers7,910$111,900
Cashiers6,930$34,770

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.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.8%
Bottom 37% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
38.1%
Bottom 38% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Leominster High SchoolLeominster1,06010.6
Sky View Middle SchoolLeominster86915.527%32%
Center For Technical Education InnovationLeominster82121.1
Johnny AppleseedLeominster69214.425%45%
Fall BrookLeominster67015.231%52%
NorthwestLeominster66513.919%34%
Frances Drake SchoolLeominster51212.823%37%
Samoset SchoolLeominster49511.822%27%
Priest StreetLeominster15115.1
BennettLeominster11519.2
Leominster Center for ExcellenceLeominster659.3
Lincoln SchoolLeominster4615.3

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 $1,354 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,354
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$380,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.54Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.3%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±64319,255Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,354Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,879$380,400Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.4%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.0%Bottom 24%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
50/ 100
Ranks 1504 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 44,209 in 2024.

60% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 0.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
25
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.6
Bottom 22% nationally
Year over year
+178%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
60.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202444k44k
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
2022202320242025546.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−54%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.4 inches.

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

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FITCHBURG MUNI AP, 2.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
HurricaneElevated
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate
EarthquakeModerate
TornadoModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Worcester County records 1.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 4.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 19.4 per 100,000 residents in Worcester County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
19.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.1
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 Worcester 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 Leominster rather than Leominster 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 33 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT33 mi9,250 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS40 mi10,083 ft
Westfield-Barnes RgnlBAF54 mi9,000 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
65
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Worcester, MA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WorcesterWorcester County207,05562vs Leominster
FitchburgWorcester County41,79856vs Leominster
MilfordWorcester County27,731vs Leominster
GardnerWorcester County21,14857vs Leominster
Southbridge TownWorcester County17,92854vs Leominster
WebsterWorcester County12,228vs Leominster

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 Leominster

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0145343,851$84,29665