City · Essex County, Massachusetts

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area. It has 88,736 residents. Lawrence, Massachusetts has a quality-of-life score of 52 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #7,454 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Massachusetts it ranks #208 of 225 cities and towns. It ranks best on traffic deaths (low), mental health providers (high) and flu vaccinations (high). It ranks worst on high school diploma or higher (low), physical inactivity (high) and child care cost burden (high).

52Moderate

Quality-of-life score: #7,454 of 15,651 cities and towns
Massachusetts: #208 of 225 in MA
Population: 88,736 (2020-2024)
Land area: 7 mi²
Density: 12,805.0 /mi²
FIPS code: 2534550

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 80 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.

Safety82#2,773/15,637
Economy13#13,621/15,631
Housing3#14,575/14,977
Health60#6,222/15,609
Healthcare82#2,762/15,650
Environment71#4,470/15,453
Education43#8,947/15,649
Infrastructure32#10,655/15,650
Community69#4,878/15,651
Leisure & amenities64#5,589/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Lawrence, Massachusetts ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Essex 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

Traffic deaths · low4.3 /100k
98/100Massachusetts 5.4 /100kUnited States 12.3 /100k2020-2024National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationProvisional dataEssex County value
Mental health providers · high702 /100k
97/100Massachusetts 787 /100kUnited States 348 /100k2025University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteEssex County value
Flu vaccinations · high56.0%
96/100Massachusetts 55.0%United States 44.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteEssex County value
Firearm deaths · low3.2 /100k
95/100Massachusetts 3.5 /100kUnited States 12.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataEssex County value
Suicide rate · low7.2 /100k
95/100Massachusetts 8.4 /100kUnited States 14.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataEssex County value
Public transit commuters · high3.7%
90/100Massachusetts 6.5%United States 3.2%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08301

Weaknesses

High school diploma or higher · low72.5%
2/100Massachusetts 91.4%United States 89.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003
Physical inactivity · high39.2%
3/100Massachusetts 19.8%United States 26.5%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate
Child care cost burden · high42.5%
4/100Massachusetts 39.7%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteEssex County value
Rent-burdened households · high60.6%
5/100Massachusetts 51.8%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070
Food insecurity · high33.8%
5/100Massachusetts 13.0%United States 15.6%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Lack of reliable transportation · high16.4%
6/100Massachusetts 7.9%United States 8.3%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate

Trends

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

PopulationRising
79,942 (2015-2019) → 88,736 (2020-2024)
+11%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
72.1% (2015-2019) → 84.9% (2020-2024)
+13 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Median household incomeImproving
$44,613 (2015-2019) → $60,433 (2020-2024)
+35%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
New homes permittedWorsening
0.2 /1k (2021) → 0.1 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−32%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
10.8% (2015-2019) → 16.8% (2020-2024)
+6 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
High school diploma or higherImproving
67.0% (2015-2019) → 72.5% (2020-2024)
+5.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 88.0% → 89.6%

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, Lawrence, Massachusetts improved on 6 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 7 moved within the margin of error and 1 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.

Improved6

High school++5.5 points67.0% → 72.5%
Poverty−3.8 points21.4% → 17.6%
Broadband+13 points72.1% → 84.9%
Bachelor's++6 points10.8% → 16.8%
Household income+35%$44,613 → $60,433

Declined1

Price / income+0.8×6.1× → 6.9×

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of Lawrence, Massachusetts between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	23.7 min2015-2019	23.0 min2020-2024	−0.7 min	Within the margin of error	56%
Bachelor's degree or higher	10.8%2015-2019	16.8%2020-2024	+6 points	Improved	74%
Broadband subscriptions	72.1%2015-2019	84.9%2020-2024	+13 points	Improved	72%
Child poverty rate	26.8%2015-2019	24.1%2020-2024	−2.7 points	Within the margin of error	59%
Effective property tax rate	1.10%2015-2019	0.80%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Little change	74%
High school diploma or higher	67.0%2015-2019	72.5%2020-2024	+5.5 points	Improved	84%
Home price to income ratio	6.1×2015-2019	6.9×2020-2024	+0.8×	Declined	31%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4652015-2019	0.4552020-2024	−0.010	Within the margin of error	59%
Median household income	$44,6132015-2019	$60,4332020-2024	+35%	Improved	66%
Poverty rate	21.4%2015-2019	17.6%2020-2024	−3.8 points	Improved	74%
Public transit commuters	4.1%2015-2019	3.6%2020-2024	−0.4 points	Within the margin of error	21%
Rent as share of income	33.7%2015-2019	34.9%2020-2024	+1.2 points	Within the margin of error	46%
Rent-burdened households	58.1%2015-2019	60.6%2020-2024	+2.5 points	Within the margin of error	47%
Unemployment rate	9.3%2015-2019	8.5%2020-2024	−0.8 points	Within the margin of error	66%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	7.4%2015-2019	5.9%2020-2024	−1.5 points	Improved	64%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 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 Lawrence, Massachusetts five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Lawrence, 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, Lawrence, Massachusetts itself moved +4.1 points in standing on average over the same 10 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

88,736 residents (±36)

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

31,142 households (±786)

Lawrence, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Under $25k21%6,583
$25k–50k20%6,348
$50k–75k20%6,080

Homes

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

Owners and renters

31,142 households (±786)

Lawrence, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Own28%8,738
Rent72%22,404

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

Table view

Getting to work

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

How people get to work

42,026 workers (±1,206)

Lawrence, Massachusetts
Massachusetts share

Drive alone66%27,875
Carpool15%6,134
Public transit3.6%1,532

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 Essex County, the county holding most of Lawrence's residents.

Essex County has 19,988 employer establishments, 244 for every 10,000 residents (0.98× the US rate of 248; 0.94× Massachusetts's), with 287,960 paid employees at an average annual pay of $67,758. The Census Bureau also counts 84,040 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 19,988; 84,040 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 244; US 248 · Massachusetts 260
Paid employees: 287,960
Average annual pay: $67,758; US $68,342

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

Restaurants and other eating places	1,596	19.5	1.06×About typical	25,636	$29,565	373
Specialty trade contractors	1,573	19.2	1.24×About typical	10,172	$85,137	5,457
Ambulatory health care services	1,379	16.9	0.81×About typical	20,027	$73,287	3,480
Services to buildings and dwellings	902	11	1.64×More than typical	5,669	$47,400	3,728
Construction of buildings	842	10.3	1.36×More than typical	3,307	$78,115	2,251
Full-service restaurants	696	8.5	1.11×About typical	14,003	$32,568	172
Lessors of real estate	683	8.4	0.68×Fewer than typical	2,258	$68,868	7,096
Building equipment contractors	638	7.8	1.30×More than typical	4,627	$84,368	1,195
Limited-service restaurants	630	7.7	0.96×About typical	8,371	$26,580	132
Personal care services	616	7.5	1.58×More than typical	2,832	$32,437	3,077
Landscaping services	611	7.5	2.13×More than typical	1,956	$70,851	922
Automotive repair and maintenance	450	5.5	1.09×About typical	1,964	$52,384	696

Rank places for an industry Open Essex County

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

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 817,647 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.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $837.9K of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Lawrence, Massachusetts: $9.44 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $837.9K; −61% vs FY2025
Per resident: $9.44; US $1,994
Sole-source: 72%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.3%; US 8.8%

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

Top buying agencies

Food Safety and Inspection Service$559.8K67%
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service$162.7K19%
Defense Logistics Agency$56.6K6.8%
Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons$32K3.8%
National Park Service$29.9K3.6%
Department of Veterans Affairs$8,0001.0%
Department of the Army$5,3990.6%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

2.9MFY2017
4.1MFY2018
3.2MFY2019
6.1MFY2020
1.8MFY2021
2.2MFY2022
1.6MFY2023
1.1M

Top industries (NAICS)

Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing · 3254$720.9K86%
Other food manufacturing · 3119$32K3.8%
Other wood product manufacturing · 3219$29.9K3.6%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing · 3345$29.5K3.5%
Other fabricated metal product manufacturing · 3329$25.1K3.0%
Commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing · 5324$19.4K

Largest awards whose ZIP code lies mostly in Lawrence, Massachusetts

PHASE 2 FURNITURE PROCUREMENT - DHS/USCIS LAWRENCE FIELD OFFICE PROJECT$768.4K
STEELCASE INC.· Essex County, MA· Other equipment & supplies· Nov 26, 2024 – Jan 20, 2026· 70SBUR25F00000009
MOBILE COMMAND VEHICLE (MCV)$755.2K
CSMI LLC· Essex County, MA· Equipment maintenance· Mar 25, 2020 – Dec 3, 2025· 70RFP320FREH00013
CHARM KIS TEST KITS$302.2K
CHARM SCIENCES INC· Essex County, MA· Health & medical· Dec 31, 2025 – Dec 31, 2025· 123A9426F0021
KIS TEST KITS Q4 DELIVERY ORDER

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 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 Lawrence, Massachusetts, so they do not add up across cities.

Lawrence, Massachusetts's figures are part of those of Essex County, MA ($5.2B in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

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

See federal money in Essex 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.

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

House

Senate

County

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

Essex County85100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH89

Other cities and towns in Essex 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
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
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/2534550

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends