Newburyport, Massachusetts

Area Profile

18,652 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Newburyport, in Essex County.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 10% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 23% of 3,904 cities measured70
SchoolsTop 9% of 2,668 cities measured84
GrowthTop 12% of 2,973 cities measured73
Housing affordability2683rd of 4,223 cities measured72
Climate3150th of 4,223 cities measured63
Physical resilienceTop 27% of 4,182 cities measured78
Access3007th of 4,226 cities measured85
Economic stabilityTop 28% of 4,226 cities measured70
The quick read

Newburyport ranks in the top 23% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $139,625.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 104 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 700% on the prior year.

Rent takes 14% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 6.0 times that income.

At a glance

Population
18,652
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$139,625
Top 6% nationally
Density
2,234/sq mi
8.3 sq mi of land
Median age
49.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Essex County
Massachusetts
Metro area
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Nearest major airport
MHT
29 mi · Manchester Boston Rgnl
Median home value
$834,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 9,574 employed residents.

67% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 94% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$21,347$139,625Top 6%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,302$83,895Top 4%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.0%Bottom 24%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute34.3 minTop 18%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher67.0%Top 4%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment9,574Bottom 3%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 41%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 27%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force9,939Bottom 2%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation66.0%Top 31%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$89,620Top 10%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$66,620Top 10%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.32.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% 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
2021202220232024144k116k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $139,625 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 65% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.8%
Top 23% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
64.7%
Top 15% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Newburyport HighNewburyport74310.3
Francis T Bresnahan ElementaryNewburyport5849.652%77%
Rupert A Nock MiddleNewburyport4709.447%52%
Edward G. Molin Elementary SchoolNewburyport3109.740%62%
River Valley Charter School · charterRiver Valley Charter28811.538%63%

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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 10% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,592 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
13.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,592
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$834,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index110.4Top 22%of 3,6582023
Home price to income5.97Top 9%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.5%Top 47%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4918,710Top 7%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$221$1,592Top 18%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$36,849$834,000Top 4%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.7%Bottom 17%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.9%Bottom 38%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 →
Development Momentum
73/ 100
Top 12% 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 grown 5% since 2020, reaching 19,163 in 2024.

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

88% 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 5.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
104
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.6
Top 26% nationally
Year over year
+700%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
88.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k18k
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
2020202120222023202420252327.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−77%).

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 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 37, in the Good band, and about 4 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAWRENCE MUNI AP, 13.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation40.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

78 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Coastal floodingHigh
Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneElevated
Heat waveModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, lightning, tornado, strong wind, cold wave, landslide, wildfire, 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.

Violent crime
72
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
466
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.

Newburyport's police department reported 72 violent offences per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 466.

Essex County records 1.7 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 3.5 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 Essex County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
3.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
19.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.7
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Newburyport’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 Essex 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 Newburyport rather than Newburyport 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 29 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT29 mi9,250 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS32 mi10,083 ft
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD80 mi8,700 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
74
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Other cities in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BostonSuffolk County666,44264vs Newburyport
CambridgeMiddlesex County118,79670vs Newburyport
LowellMiddlesex County118,36862vs Newburyport
BrocktonPlymouth County105,38654vs Newburyport
QuincyNorfolk County102,11470vs Newburyport
LynnEssex County101,70955vs Newburyport
NewtonMiddlesex County89,04475vs Newburyport
LawrenceEssex County88,73647vs Newburyport
SomervilleMiddlesex County81,03667vs Newburyport
FraminghamMiddlesex County72,39966vs Newburyport
HaverhillEssex County67,69858vs Newburyport
MaldenMiddlesex County65,90665vs Newburyport

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
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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 Newburyport

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0195018,652$139,62574