Community & Data
Demographics
A Portrait of Nantucket
Nantucket covers 46.192 square miles of land, all of it the county as well as the town, at about 309 residents to the square mile. The numbers describe a year-round community that is more owner-occupied and far more expensive than the Commonwealth as a whole. One resident in five is under 18. Roughly three homes in four are lived in by their owners. The median household income is $119,750 and the median home value is $1,387,000. One resident in seven was born outside the United States, and about one in six speaks a language other than English at home. 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): 14,255
- Households: 5,048
- Persons per household: 2.8
- Foreign-born: 15.1% of residents
- Age 65 and over: 15.5%
- Under 18: 20.6%
Race & Ethnicity
- White: 70.8%
- Asian: 1.8%
- Black or African American: 9.3%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race): 16.4%
- Two or more races: 12.9%
- Speak a language other than English at home: 15.6%
Economy & Housing
- Median household income: $119,750
- Poverty rate: 3.0%
- Median home value: $1,387,000
- Median gross rent: $2,070
- Homeownership: 76.5% of units
- In the labor force: 72.9%
Registered Voters
Massachusetts publishes voter-registration counts by town through the Secretary of the Commonwealth. As in most of the state, Nantucket’s largest bloc by far is voters who choose no party at all, which is worth knowing before anyone tells you how this island votes.
- Total registered: 10,007
- Unenrolled (no party): 6,448 (64.43%)
- Democrats: 2,462 (24.60%)
- Republicans: 997 (9.96%)
Here is what those registrations did on May 19, 2026. The Town and County Clerk’s certified tally sheet records 10,356 registered voters and 3,052 ballots cast, a turnout of 29.5 percent. Those 3,052 people chose the Moderator, filled two Select Board seats and two School Committee seats, seated members on the Historic District Commission, the Land Bank Commission, the Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board, the Housing Authority, the Planning Board and the Water Commission, and decided all seven ballot questions, every one of which passed. The closest of the seven, on the Loran barracks, carried by 122 votes. That is what a single ballot is worth in a spring town election.
Sources
See how Nantucket fits into the broader Commonwealth.