Woburn, Massachusetts

Area Profile

41,939 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Woburn, in Middlesex County.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 29% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 30% of 3,904 published cities66
SchoolsTop 32% of 2,668 published cities66
Growth2081st of 2,973 published cities39
Housing affordability3471st of 4,223 published cities58
Climate3361st of 4,223 published cities62
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 4,182 published cities88
AccessTop 20% of 4,226 published cities98
Economic stabilityTop 15% of 4,226 published cities76
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 16 units authorized over the past twelve months, 53% below the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.1 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 24% of it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Woburn in the top 14% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
41,939
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,185
Top 13% nationally
Density
3,315/sq mi
12.7 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Middlesex County
Massachusetts
Metro area
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Nearest major airport
BOS
12 mi · General Edward Lawrence Logan Intl
Median home value
$673,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 59% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 24,362 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 86% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,940$111,185Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,794$58,435Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.9%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.8 minTop 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher46.5%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,362Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.1%Top 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force25,396Bottom 31%June 2026
Labor force participation73.7%Top 11%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)-0.2%Bottom 35%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 41%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.83.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.1% 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
2021202220232024111k95k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,185 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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
35.7%
Top 39% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
47.0%
Top 44% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Woburn HighWoburn1,25911.2
John F Kennedy Middle SchoolWoburn52110.442%42%
Daniel L Joyce Middle SchoolWoburn4558.427%42%
Clyde ReevesWoburn45114.138%57%
Hurld-Wyman Elementary SchoolWoburn41813.541%53%
Goodyear Elementary SchoolWoburn35211.429%35%
Malcolm WhiteWoburn32310.828%41%
ShamrockWoburn28410.530%46%
Mary D AltavestaWoburn24810.345%53%
Linscott-RumfordWoburn20914.944%60%

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 $2,221 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.1 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,221
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$673,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.06Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.7%Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±57617,045Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$77$2,221Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,740$673,500Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.0%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.6%Bottom 22%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
39/ 100
Ranks 2081 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 8% since 2020, reaching 43,895 in 2024.

63% 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 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
16
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 18% nationally
Year over year
−53%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
62.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202444k41k
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
20202021202220232024202563231
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−92%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 85°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.6 inches.

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 BEDFORD HANSCOM FLD, 7.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation42.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 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
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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeElevated
Heat waveModerate
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate

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

Middlesex County records 0.9 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 2.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.7 per 100,000 residents in Middlesex County.

Homicide
0.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.1
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 Middlesex 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 Woburn rather than Woburn 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 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS12 mi10,083 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT34 mi9,250 ft
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD55 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
67
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Other cities in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

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

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.

Compare

Put Woburn side by side with a similar place.

Woburn vs WatertownWoburn vs MedfordWoburn vs WalthamWoburn vs Weymouth Town

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 Woburn

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0180141,939$111,18567