Community & Data
Demographics
A Portrait of Auburn
Sixteen thousand people live on fifteen and a half square miles wrapped around four highways, which works out to about 1,091 residents per square mile. Auburn owns its homes at a rate well above the state’s, more than one resident in five is 65 or older, and roughly the same share is under 18, so the town is carrying a large school population and a large retired population at the same time. That tension is most of what the budget argument is about every spring. Figures below are from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Follow the source links for the latest.
Key Figures
Sources: US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
Population & Households
- Population (2020 Census): 16,889
- Households: 6,854
- Persons per household: 2.4
- Foreign-born: 7.3% of residents
- Age 65 and over: 22.1%
- Under 18: 21.4%
- Under 5: 3.9%
- Veterans: 7.3%
- Land area: 15.5 square miles
- Density: about 1,091 residents per square mile
Race & Ethnicity
- White: 89.4%
- Asian: 3.1%
- Black or African American: 0.9%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race): 5.4%
- Two or more races: 5.3%
- Speak a language other than English at home: 9.7%
Economy & Housing
- Median household income: $100,786
- Poverty rate: 4.5%
- Median home value: $363,100
- Median gross rent: $1,241
- Homeownership: 80.2% of units
- In the labor force: 64.9%
Registered Voters
Massachusetts publishes voter-registration counts by town through the Secretary of the Commonwealth. As in most of the state, Auburn’s largest bloc by far is voters who choose no party at all, and because an unenrolled voter in Massachusetts can take either party’s primary ballot, that bloc decides both primaries.
- Total registered: 13,603
- Unenrolled (no party): 9,373 (68.90%)
- Democrats: 2,684 (19.73%)
- Republicans: 1,371 (10.08%)
At the Annual Town Election on May 19, 2026, the Town Clerk certified 1,712 ballots cast. That is roughly one voter in eight, and those 1,712 people filled every town seat on the ballot for all 16,889 residents, which tells you exactly what a single ballot is worth in a town election.
Sources
See how Auburn fits into the broader Commonwealth.