By the Numbers
Who Lives in Newburyport
A Portrait of Newburyport
Newburyport holds 18,289 people on 8.35 square miles of land, about 2,190 people per square mile. That is a city by charter and a compact one on the map: the whole place is walkable from the waterfront to the high school. Its median household income is $144,259 and its median home value is $792,400, which is the number that decides who can afford to move here and who can afford to stay. Both figures matter to a student, because a city budget is built on what the property in it is worth and on what the people in it earn.
Sources: US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
Age, Housing and Work
- Under 18: 21.8%
- 65 and over: 22.9%
- Owner occupied homes: 76.2%
- Median rent: $1,511
- Median home value: $792,400
- People per household: 2.3
- In the labor force: 68.2%
- Veterans: 4.7%
- Living in poverty: 5.1%
- Foreign born: 6.3%
Race and Ethnicity
- White alone: 92.7%
- White, not Hispanic or Latino: 91.0%
- Black or African American alone: 0.4%
- Asian alone: 0.7%
- Hispanic or Latino, any race: 4.0%
- Two or more races: 5.5%
- American Indian or Alaska Native alone: 0.0%
- Speak a language other than English at home: 6.7%
Who Is Registered, and Who Turns Out
Newburyport had 15,687 registered voters at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s most recent enrollment count, and nearly two thirds of them belong to no party at all. In Massachusetts an unenrolled voter may still take either party’s ballot in a primary, which makes that bloc the one every candidate has to win.
- Total registered: 15,687
- Unenrolled (no party): 9,991 (63.69%)
- Democrats: 4,118 (26.25%)
- Republicans: 1,404 (8.95%)
- Political designations: 174 (1.11%)
- Polls: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at your ward polling place, with early voting at the Senior Community Center, 331 High Street
At the biennial municipal election of Tuesday November 4, 2025, 6,831 ballots were cast out of 15,686 voters on the rolls, about 44 percent. Those 6,831 voters decided the whole city government at once: the Mayor for a four year term, all eleven City Council seats for two years, and three of the six elected School Committee seats for four. The Ward 6 council race turned on 843 votes to 206, the Ward 2 race on 655 to 428, and the mayor’s race on a margin of 307 out of 6,731 votes cast for the two candidates. That is what a single ballot is worth in a city election.
Sources
Population, households, income, housing and race from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Decennial Census and American Community Survey 5 year estimates, at data.census.gov. Land area and density from the U.S. Census Bureau gazetteer. Voter enrollment from the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Election results from the City Clerk’s certified return for the November 4, 2025 biennial municipal election.