Community & Data
Demographics
A Portrait of Chester
Chester is a small rural town in the Berkshire foothills, about 36.6 square miles of hills and river valley with roughly 34 people to the square mile. Its 1,228 residents live in about 474 households, four in five of them owner-occupied, and the median household income is about $87,000. 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): 1,228
- Households: 474
- Persons per household: 2.8
- Foreign-born: 2.1% of residents
- Age 65 and over: 16.0%
- Under 18: 23.6%
Race & Ethnicity
- White: 96.3%
- Asian: 0.0%
- Black or African American: 0.5%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race): 2.0%
- Two or more races: 1.1%
- Speak a language other than English at home: 4.4%
Economy & Housing
- Median household income: $87,308
- Poverty rate: 2.0%
- Median home value: $275,600
- Median gross rent: $1,141
- Homeownership: 83.1% of units
- In the labor force: 67.9%
Registered Voters
Massachusetts publishes voter-registration counts by town through the Secretary of the Commonwealth. As in most of the state, Chester’s largest bloc by far is voters who choose no party at all, which makes them the group every candidate has to win.
- Total registered: 938
- Unenrolled (no party): 639 (68.12%)
- Democrats: 121 (12.90%)
- Republicans: 161 (17.16%)
Sources
See how Chester fits into the broader Commonwealth.