Cost of living, rent, and safety data — Population 978,246 • 0 community reports
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City Score
Best for: Cost of Living · Watch out for: Safety
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Common questions about living in Worcester, MA
Worcester's crime numbers hover right around the U.S. average. Violent crime index: 86. Property crime index: 64. The national baseline for both is 100, so you're looking at a city that's neither notably safe nor notably dangerous on paper. In practice, where you live within the city shifts the picture dramatically — a 10-minute drive can mean a completely different experience. Check local crime maps. Source: FBI UCR.
Most households manage fine. Median rent in Worcester is $1,415/month, and the typical household pulls in $67,544/year — a 25.1% rent-to-income ratio. That's under the 30% threshold where housing costs start to pinch, though not by a huge margin. If you're a single earner or have significant debt payments, run your own numbers carefully. For dual-income households, the math works out comfortably. Census ACS 2023.
Worth considering, yes. At 22 minutes average, the commute in Worcester isn't brutal but it's not trivial either. 65.8% drive alone, 2.7% ride transit, and 10.7% work remotely. Where you live relative to your office will make a bigger difference than the city-wide average suggests.
Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.
Disclaimer: Data reflects city-wide averages from public sources. Individual neighborhoods, schools, and conditions may differ. Always verify with local agencies before making major decisions.
These calculators pair well with the Worcester, MA dashboard.
City scores blend federal baseline data with community reports from residents. The more reports a city has, the more the score reflects current conditions rather than historical averages.
The overall score is a weighted average of four categories:
Confidence tells you how reliable a score is based on report volume and recency:
CityScore = (BaselineWeight × BaselineScore) + (CrowdWeight × CommunityScore)
CrowdWeight grows from 0% to 50% as reports accumulate. Verified reports count double.
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