Nantucket, Massachusetts

Area Profile

10,017 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Nantucket, in Nantucket County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 1% of 3,904 cities measured91
Schools1843rd of 2,668 cities measured37
Housing affordability3610th of 4,223 cities measured55
Climate2536th of 4,223 cities measured68
Physical resilience3188th of 4,182 cities measured30
Access4034th of 4,226 cities measured53
Economic stabilityTop 39% of 4,226 cities measured65
The quick read

Nantucket ranks in the top 1% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.3% and median household income of $148,017.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 9.9 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 18% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane and coastal flooding.

At a glance

Population
10,017
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$148,017
Top 5% nationally
Density
1,720/sq mi
5.8 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Nantucket County
Massachusetts
Metro area
Nantucket, MA
Nearest major airport
PVD
76 mi · Rhode Island TF Green Intl
Median home value
$1,465,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 89% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.1% over the past year, to 10,641 employed residents.

53% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 95% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$19,008$148,017Top 5%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$10,418$79,413Top 4%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.2%Bottom 16%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute16.5 minBottom 8%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher52.8%Top 10%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,641Bottom 4%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.7%Top 4%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.1%Top 12%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force11,004Bottom 4%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation72.1%Top 13%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 11%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024148k108k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $148,017 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Nantucket County, MA, which contains this city.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.6%
Bottom 21% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
32.7%
Bottom 22% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Nantucket HighNantucket59611.0
Nantucket ElementaryNantucket3999.3
Nantucket Intermediate SchoolNantucket3669.920%38%
Cyrus PeirceNantucket35810.217%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 $2,228 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 9.9 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
18.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
9.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,228
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$1,465,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income9.90Top 1%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.8%Top 40%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3256,805Top 9%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$404$2,228Top 6%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$264,731$1,465,300Top 1%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.1%Bottom 46%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate48.6%Top 5%of 32,0012024 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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 75°F and January a low of 27°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.9 inches.

20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NANTUCKET MEM AP, 2.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation40.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low27°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high75°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

30 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 80% of measured US cities.

HurricaneHigh
Coastal floodingHigh

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

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.

Violent crime
183
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,119
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Nantucket's police department reported 183 violent offences per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,119.

Nantucket County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.1 per 100,000 residents in Nantucket County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
0.0
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Nantucket’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Nantucket 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 Nantucket rather than Nantucket 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.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 76 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD76 mi8,700 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS89 mi10,083 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT134 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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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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
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

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 Nantucket

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0255414,212$140,938