Census-designated place · Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts

Hanscom AFB is a census-designated place in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area. It has 2,110 residents. Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts has a quality-of-life score of 100 out of 100 (very high), ranking #39 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Massachusetts it ranks #2 of 225 cities and towns. It ranks best on poverty rate (low), traffic deaths (low) and average weekly wage (high). It ranks worst on fiber internet available (low), job growth (low) and time spent in the emergency room (high).

100Very high

Quality-of-life score: #39 of 15,651 cities and towns
Massachusetts: #2 of 225 in MA
Population: 2,110 (2020-2024)
Land area: 1 mi²
Density: 2,366.3 /mi²
FIPS code: 2528425

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 83 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety86#2,150/15,637
Economy95#752/15,631
Housing—
Health97#468/15,609
Healthcare94#922/15,650
Environment88#1,868/15,453
Education91#1,441/15,650
Infrastructure89#1,692/15,650
Community88#1,833/15,651
Leisure & amenities63#5,721/15,651
Nature & outdoors—

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Middlesex County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Poverty rate · low0.0%
100/100Massachusetts 9.8%United States 12.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B17001
Traffic deaths · low3.4 /100k
100/100Massachusetts 5.4 /100kUnited States 12.3 /100k2020-2024National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationProvisional dataMiddlesex County value
Average weekly wage · high$2,278
99/100Massachusetts $1,925United States $1,5142025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsMiddlesex County value
Flu vaccinations · high60.0%
99/100Massachusetts 55.0%United States 44.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteMiddlesex County value
Reading scores · high3.51
98/100Massachusetts 3.31United States 3.052019University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteMiddlesex County value
Adult smoking · low6.6%
98/100Massachusetts 11.6%United States 16.1%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate

Weaknesses

Fiber internet available · low0.2%
10/100Massachusetts 50.1%United States 55.9%Dec 2025Federal Communications Commission
Job growth · low-2.1%
12/100Massachusetts -0.9%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataMiddlesex County value
Time spent in the emergency room · high217 min
14/100Massachusetts 216 minUnited States 170 minOct 2024–Sep 2025Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesMiddlesex County value
Comfortable days · low23.6%
15/100Massachusetts 24.3%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationMiddlesex County value
Average commute time · high23.2 min
20/100Massachusetts 29.1 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013High uncertainty
Rent-burdened households · high62.0%
22/100Massachusetts 51.8%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Bachelor's degree or higherWorsening
57.3% (2015-2019) → 34.7% (2020-2024)
−23 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Uninsured residents (under 65)Worsening
0.0% (2015-2019) → 7.1% (2020-2024)
+7.1 pts5 yearsCensus table B27010US 10.8% → 9.8%
Rent as share of incomeWorsening
36.0% (2015-2019) → 41.0% (2020-2024)
+5 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Unemployment rateImproving
4.9% (2015-2019) → 0.7% (2020-2024)
−4.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B23025US 3.7% → 4.0%
Average commute timeWorsening
19.8 min (2015-2019) → 23.2 min (2020-2024)
+17%5 yearsCensus table B08013US 26.9 min → 26.4 min
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
64.7% (2015-2019) → 61.9% (2020-2024)
−2.7 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts improved on 0 of 8 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved0

No measure improved by more than its margin of error.

Declined1

Bachelor's+−23 points57.3% → 34.7%

All 8 measures

Change of every measure of Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.3%2015-2019	34.7%2020-2024	−23 points	Declined	0%
Child poverty rate	0.0%2015-2019	0.0%2020-2024	0 points	Within the margin of error	42%
High school diploma or higher	99.8%2015-2019	100.0%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	35%
Households subscribed to broadband	100.0%2015-2019	99.3%2020-2024	−0.7 points	Within the margin of error	7%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3062015-2019	0.3302020-2024	+0.024	Within the margin of error	31%
Poverty rate	0.0%2015-2019	0.0%2020-2024	0 points	Within the margin of error	44%
Rent as share of income	36.0%2015-2019	41.0%2020-2024	+5 points	Within the margin of error	22%
Rent-burdened households	64.7%2015-2019	61.9%2020-2024	−2.7 points	Within the margin of error	65%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 10944 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts itself moved −4.8 points in standing on average over the same 6 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

2,110 residents (±703)

Men
Women

80 and over
70–79
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

680 households (±229)

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Under $25k0.0%0
$25k–50k42%†287
$50k–75k1.3%†

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

680 households (±229)

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Own0.0%0
Rent100%†680

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

1,123 workers (±361)

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Drive alone72%†805
Carpool4.8%†54
Public transit

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Middlesex County, the county holding most of Hanscom AFB's residents.

Middlesex County has 44,624 employer establishments, 271 for every 10,000 residents (1.09× the US rate of 248; 1.04× Massachusetts's), with 963,417 paid employees at an average annual pay of $101,547. The Census Bureau also counts 163,384 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 44,624; 163,384 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 271; US 248 · Massachusetts 260
Paid employees: 963,417
Average annual pay: $101,547; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Middlesex County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	3,345	20.3	0.98×About typical	54,229	$78,195	9,843
Restaurants and other eating places	3,288	20	1.09×About typical	53,034	$30,255	556
Specialty trade contractors	3,215	19.6	1.26×More than typical	32,766	$92,189	9,701
Lessors of real estate	1,820	11.1	0.90×About typical	12,934	$87,409	15,838
Construction of buildings	1,598	9.7	1.29×More than typical	9,781	$103,966	3,732
Services to buildings and dwellings	1,574	9.6	1.42×More than typical	14,990	$51,670	6,561
Building equipment contractors	1,425	8.7	1.44×More than typical	17,938	$95,525	1,843
Full-service restaurants	1,425	8.7	1.13×About typical	29,101	$33,485	197
Management, scientific and technical consulting	1,390	8.5	1.26×More than typical	15,370	$124,172	11,798
Computer systems design and related services	1,269	7.7	1.78×More than typical	24,757	$146,568	2,806
Limited-service restaurants	1,226	7.5	0.93×About typical	15,276	$27,504	258
Personal care services	1,198	7.3	1.53×More than typical	5,809	$33,392	3,649

Rank places for an industry Open Middlesex County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 1,644,193 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Public schools

Public schools located in Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts and the districts that run them (NCES Common Core of Data). Students per teacher counts full-time-equivalent teachers, not the size of each class.

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts has 1 public schools with 493 students and 8.2 students per teacher (Massachusetts: 11.9, US: 15.2).

Elementary schools: 1
Middle schools: 0
High schools: 0
Students per teacher: 8.2; US: 15.2

School districts

Districts with schools here, by students here.

District	Schools	Students	Spending / student
Lincoln	1	493	$34,296

Largest schools

School	Grades	Students	Students / teacher	District
Hanscom School	Pre-K–8	493	8.2	Lincoln

All 1 schools

Sources

Public schools and school districts (National Center for Education Statistics · U.S. Census Bureau), 2024–25 school year. NCES Common Core of Data and EDGE public school geocodes; U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of School System Finances and cartographic boundary files (places).

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $386.7M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts: $183,257 per resident (US $2,158).

Obligations: $386.7M; −8% vs FY2025
Per resident: $183,257; US $2,158
Sole-source: 9.7%; US 31%
Single offer: 6.6%; US 8.9%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of the Air Force$367.2M95%
Federal Acquisition Service$8.4M2.2%
Defense Information Systems Agency$4.2M1.1%
Department of the Army$3.5M0.9%
Department of the Navy$2.9M0.7%
Defense Health Agency$309.4K0.1%
Defense Commissary Agency$209.1K0.1%
Federal Prison Industries / Unicor$63.8K0.0%

Top recipients

APPLIED RESEARCH SOLUTIONS, INC.$84.8M22%
ODYSSEY SYSTEMS CONSULTING GROUP, LTD.$74.9M19%
M. C. DEAN, INC.$62.2M16%
SMS DATA PRODUCTS GROUP INC$18.7M4.8%
CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP$13.6M3.5%

Spending by fiscal year

47.2MFY2017
49.9MFY2018
33MFY2019
37.4MFY2020
28.9MFY2021
139.7MFY2022
117.3MFY2023
254.9M

Top industries (NAICS)

Scientific research and development services · 5417$167.7M43%
Wired telecommunications carriers · 5171$85.5M22%
Computer systems design and related services · 5415$64.2M17%
Architectural, engineering, and related services · 5413$14.9M3.9%
Software publishers · 5112$11.4M3.0%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 21, 2026, loaded Oct 21, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, so they do not add up across cities.

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts's figures are part of those of Middlesex County, MA ($8.7B in FY2026), never added to them: 4.4% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Hanscom AFB is mostly in Middlesex County.

See federal money in Middlesex County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Middlesex County95100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH90

Other cities and towns in Middlesex County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
National Broadband Map (Broadband Data Collection)Federal Communications Commission · release 2025-12-31
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/2528425

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends