City safety & data profile
ChelseaMA
Chelsea, MA is a 39K-resident city in Suffolk County with a median household income of $72,179.
Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Chelsea, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Chelsea has a population larger than 73% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $493,500.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 39K
- Population (place)
- Top 27%
- By size
- $72,179
- Median income (place)
- $493,500
- Median home (place)
- 20.7%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Chelsea
Chelsea posts a median household income higher than 39% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Bottom 40%
- by median income, US cities
Where Chelsea income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$72,179 Bottom 39% higher than 39% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in MA
Population among 78 MA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Boston
Boston, MA
653,833 residents
- Worcester 206,518
Worcester, MA
206,518 residents
- Springfield 154,341
Springfield, MA
154,341 residents
- Lowell 110,699
Lowell, MA
110,699 residents
- Cambridge 110,402
Cambridge, MA
110,402 residents
- New Bedford 101,079
New Bedford, MA
101,079 residents
- Brockton 95,314
Brockton, MA
95,314 residents
- Fall River 94,000
Fall River, MA
94,000 residents
- Quincy 93,618
Quincy, MA
93,618 residents
- Lynn 92,457
Lynn, MA
92,457 residents
What this shows Boston is the largest MA city on this list; Wellesley leads median income.
Highest median incomes in MA
Median household income among the same 78-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Wellesley
Wellesley, MA
$250,001 median
- Lexington
Lexington, MA
$238,444 median
- Winchester
Winchester, MA
$230,198 median
- Needham
Needham, MA
$214,308 median
- Newton
Newton, MA
$190,304 median
- Milton
Milton, MA
$188,529 median
- Belmont
Belmont, MA
$183,137 median
- Marblehead
Marblehead, MA
$182,132 median
- Lynnfield
Lynnfield, MA
$175,265 median
- Wilmington
Wilmington, MA
$168,152 median
What this shows Wellesley posts the highest place-level median income in MA; Boston is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Chelsea, MA beyond the headline numbers
Chelsea sits inside Suffolk County, Massachusetts, at roughly 42.39°N, -71.03°W. Population 39,398, $72,179 median household income. Median home value $493,500, median rent $1,956. Poverty rate 20.7%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
20.7% of Chelsea, MA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
The median home in Chelsea costs around 6.8 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.
Remote work covers 10.4% of Chelsea workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 19.2% in Chelsea, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
20.9% of Chelsea workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Chelsea's median age is 34.4 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Chelsea from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Suffolk County): Chelsea's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 20.7% +67% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 9.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 22.2% |
| Work From Home | 10.4% |
| Public Transit | 20.9% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Chelsea?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Chelsea right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MA-CHELSEA-MA · Chelsea
Chelsea: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Chelsea; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Massachusetts state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Chelsea, MA? ▼
What is the median household income in Chelsea? ▼
What is the median home value in Chelsea? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Chelsea? ▼
What is the median age in Chelsea? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Chelsea, both outside Massachusetts so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MA (20.7% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MA ($72,179 here).
Compare Chelsea with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Chelsea's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Chelsea area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Chelsea against Massachusetts peers on any ranking lens. Explore Massachusetts
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Suffolk County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.