The baked beans in Massachusetts are rich, the clam chowder here is rich, and if the Boston Tea Party hadn’t happened, there would be even more Bay Staters who are rich.
Harvard University in Cambridge is not only one of the best universities in the country, but it has produced more billionaires than the Massachusetts lottery. Those smart, wealthy Harvard graduates aren’t leaving after graduation because Massachusetts is one of the fastest-growing states in America.
Of note, many of Massachusetts’s richest places are also some of the state’s safest.
However, if you want to live like the ‘one percent’ in Massachusetts’ wealthiest places, you’ll need to make at least $116,167/year. The state is, after all, one of the richest states in the country.
To see what Massachusetts cities made the cut, keep reading.
$190,304 median income · 4.5% poverty · #1 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Newton is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately 7 miles west of downtown Boston and is bordered by Boston’s Brighton and West Roxbury neighborhoods to the east and south, respectively, and by the suburb of Brookline to the east, the suburbs of Watertown and Waltham to the north, and Wellesley and Needham to the west. Rather than having a single city center, Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$139,625 median income · 5.0% poverty · #3 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Essex County, Massachusetts
Newburyport is a small coastal, scenic, and historic city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles northeast of Boston. The population was 17,416 at the 2010 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mooring, winter storage and maintenance of recreational boats, motor and sail, still contribute a large part of the city’s income. A Coast Guard station oversees boating activity, especially in the swift tidal currents of the Merrimack River.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$130,748 median income · 12.8% poverty · #6 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and part of the Boston metropolitan area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$132,572 median income · 9.8% poverty · #5 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Somerville is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of 2010, the United States Census lists the city with a total population of 75,754 people, making it the most densely populated municipality in New England. As of 2010, it was the 16th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the town was named the best-run city in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. In 1972, in 2009, and again in 2015, the city received the All-America City Award.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$133,953 median income · 3.8% poverty · #4 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Its population as per the 2010 United States Census is 26,983. It is a suburb located approximately seven miles north of Boston and is situated in the center of the triangle created by Interstates 93, 95 and US Route 1.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$129,540 median income · 7.6% poverty · #7 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Medford is a city 3.2 miles northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford’s population was 56,173. It is home to Tufts University.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$120,216 median income · 9.4% poverty · #9 income in Massachusetts
Located in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning, spawning what became known as the Waltham-Lowell system of labor and production. The city is now a center for research and higher education, home to Brandeis University and Bentley University. The population was 60,636 at the census in 2010.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$145,773 median income · 5.9% poverty · #2 income in Massachusetts
The Town of Franklin is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Franklin is one of fourteen Massachusetts municipalities that have applied for, and been granted, city forms of government but wish to retain “The town of- in their official names. As of 2012, the city’s population was 33,092. It is home to the country’s first library, with its first books donated by Benjamin Franklin. It also contains the largest Catholic parish in the Boston Archdiocese, St. Mary’s Catholic church, with some 15,000 members.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$122,214 median income · 5.9% poverty · #8 income in Massachusetts
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$116,167 median income · 7.2% poverty · #10 income in Massachusetts
Winthrop is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,497 at the 2010 census. Winthrop is an ocean-side suburban community in Greater Boston situated at the north entrance to Boston Harbor, close to Logan International Airport. It is located on a peninsula, 1.6 square miles in area, connected to Revere by a narrow isthmus and to East Boston by a bridge over the harbor inlet to the Belle Isle Marsh Reservation. Settled in 1630, Winthrop is one of the oldest communities in the United States. It is also one of the smallest and most densely populated municipalities in Massachusetts. It is one of the four cities in Suffolk County. It is the southernmost part of the North Shore, with a 7-mile shoreline that provides views of the Atlantic Ocean to the east and of the Boston skyline to the west.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Massachusetts’s statewide median.
Massachusetts statewide median: $103,960
Massachusetts statewide median: $656,690
Massachusetts statewide median: 10.0%
Massachusetts statewide median: 5.2%
On the map
Where the money lives in Massachusetts
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the richest places in Massachusetts for 2026
The first thing most people reach for is personal income. After all, rich people have really high salaries. But one statistic doesn’t capture what it means to be one of the “richest places,” so we applied Saturday Night Science to two measures from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Median household income
- Median home value
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place is, and home values are a measure of accumulated wealth. The two combine to define a “Rich City.”
After collecting the data for all 48 places in Massachusetts with more than 12,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 48 on both criteria, then averaged the two ranks into a “Rich Score.” The place with the lowest Rich Score, Newton, is crowned the richest city in Massachusetts for 2026.
The full plate
All 48 richest cities in Massachusetts, ranked
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Rich Score | Population | Median income | Median home value | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newton | 1.00 | 89,044 | $190,304 | $1,528,894 | 4.5% | 3.8% |
| 2 | Newburyport | 3.50 | 18,652 | $139,625 | $923,543 | 5.0% | 5.1% |
| 3 | Cambridge | 4.00 | 118,796 | $130,748 | $1,041,569 | 12.8% | 3.4% |
| 4 | Somerville | 4.00 | 81,036 | $132,572 | $940,239 | 9.8% | 3.0% |
| 5 | Melrose | 4.50 | 29,650 | $133,953 | $908,131 | 3.8% | 3.7% |
| 6 | Medford | 6.50 | 59,354 | $129,540 | $842,298 | 7.6% | 4.3% |
| 7 | Waltham | 8.00 | 64,902 | $120,216 | $826,437 | 9.4% | 3.7% |
| 8 | Franklin Town | 8.00 | 33,154 | $145,773 | $714,637 | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| 9 | Braintree Town | 8.50 | 38,899 | $122,214 | $767,327 | 5.9% | 4.0% |
| 10 | Winthrop Town | 10.50 | 18,759 | $116,167 | $758,915 | 7.2% | 5.9% |
| 11 | Woburn | 11.50 | 41,939 | $111,185 | $758,603 | 7.9% | 7.9% |
| 12 | Boston | 12.50 | 666,442 | $97,344 | $798,217 | 16.6% | 6.1% |
| 13 | Beverly | 12.50 | 42,665 | $106,044 | $755,767 | 9.4% | 4.4% |
| 14 | Malden | 15.50 | 65,906 | $100,606 | $684,055 | 11.4% | 5.4% |
| 15 | Weymouth Town | 16.00 | 58,505 | $102,714 | $645,008 | 7.7% | 4.9% |
| 16 | Quincy | 17.00 | 102,114 | $98,882 | $675,959 | 10.6% | 6.9% |
| 17 | Peabody | 17.00 | 54,695 | $96,657 | $694,094 | 7.7% | 4.9% |
| 18 | Barnstable Town | 17.00 | 49,568 | $91,982 | $703,889 | 7.4% | 3.1% |
| 19 | Gloucester | 18.50 | 30,075 | $83,883 | $760,558 | 9.6% | 6.5% |
| 20 | Attleboro | 20.50 | 46,762 | $98,954 | $532,570 | 8.6% | 4.7% |
| 21 | Marlborough | 22.00 | 41,647 | $91,968 | $578,934 | 9.6% | 5.5% |
| 22 | Revere | 22.00 | 60,012 | $86,969 | $612,971 | 11.5% | 7.0% |
| 23 | Everett | 22.50 | 50,045 | $85,218 | $639,070 | 14.7% | 5.5% |
| 24 | Haverhill | 23.00 | 67,698 | $88,326 | $543,992 | 11.3% | 5.7% |
| 25 | Salem | 24.00 | 44,795 | $85,153 | $606,559 | 12.1% | 5.1% |
| 26 | Lynn | 28.50 | 101,709 | $75,043 | $580,316 | 13.8% | 5.0% |
| 27 | Taunton | 29.50 | 60,433 | $79,283 | $513,322 | 13.0% | 5.8% |
| 28 | Westfield | 30.00 | 40,378 | $87,753 | $378,738 | 10.7% | 3.0% |
| 29 | Northampton | 30.00 | 30,962 | $80,288 | $486,075 | 13.4% | 5.5% |
| 30 | Brockton | 30.00 | 105,386 | $80,115 | $503,833 | 13.5% | 8.6% |
| 31 | Leominster | 30.50 | 43,909 | $83,816 | $463,494 | 9.2% | 6.2% |
| 32 | Chelsea | 31.50 | 39,908 | $72,179 | $526,190 | 20.7% | 9.2% |
| 33 | Lowell | 32.00 | 118,368 | $78,658 | $480,319 | 16.9% | 5.7% |
| 34 | Agawam Town | 32.50 | 28,539 | $85,421 | $364,036 | 6.7% | 4.0% |
| 35 | Fitchburg | 36.00 | 41,798 | $73,040 | $396,820 | 15.6% | 6.7% |
| 36 | Lawrence | 36.00 | 88,736 | $60,433 | $504,150 | 17.6% | 8.5% |
| 37 | Worcester | 37.00 | 207,055 | $70,102 | $430,112 | 19.6% | 6.5% |
| 38 | Palmer Town | 38.50 | 12,381 | $78,480 | $317,071 | 8.3% | 2.9% |
| 39 | West Springfield Town | 39.00 | 28,772 | $69,371 | $375,602 | 11.9% | 6.0% |
| 40 | New Bedford | 39.50 | 100,998 | $56,981 | $434,262 | 20.6% | 8.3% |
| 41 | Fall River | 39.50 | 94,082 | $56,673 | $445,781 | 19.6% | 6.5% |
| 42 | Gardner | 40.00 | 21,148 | $67,518 | $369,177 | 13.7% | 7.0% |
| 43 | Pittsfield | 41.50 | 43,457 | $70,582 | $302,831 | 14.9% | 7.0% |
| 44 | Southbridge Town | 41.50 | 17,928 | $66,287 | $344,409 | 15.3% | 7.2% |
| 45 | Chicopee | 43.50 | 55,295 | $62,615 | $311,123 | 17.3% | 6.3% |
| 46 | Holyoke | 44.50 | 37,813 | $53,605 | $322,895 | 27.0% | 7.7% |
| 47 | Springfield | 47.00 | 154,749 | $52,656 | $294,613 | 25.8% | 8.7% |
| 48 | North Adams | 48.00 | 12,606 | $47,500 | $252,589 | 18.6% | 5.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024, Zillow research. 48 cities with more than 12,000 residents.
Newton is the richest place in Massachusetts for 2026
When we set out to identify the richest places in Massachusetts, we weren’t sure what we’d find, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in the state. The richest cities in Massachusetts are Newton, Newburyport, and Cambridge, and when you look at the data they sit at the very top of the income ladder for everyone who lives there.
Breaking into the top ten takes a median household income of at least $116,167. If you’re curious about the other end of the ledger, the poorest places are listed to the right.
