Income

Among the most striking findings of this report are the income differences that mark Cambridge today. While the highest-income quintile accounts for 51 percent of the total earned income in the city, the lowest-income quintile shares just 2.2 percent of the city’s total earned income. With an average income of $13,280, households in the first quintile earn nearly $330,000 less than households in the top quintile, which have an average income of $343,190.

Age Groups

The quintiles reveal details of the “new Cambridge,” a place with a booming millennial population, a stagnant and falling under-18 population, a mature adult workforce that tends toward the upper tiers, and an elder population divided into those with income and those without.

• More children today reside in wealthier households than a decade ago: More than 30 percent of Cambridge’s children live in the top quintile of households, compared with 24.5 percent in 2009. At the same time, the share of children in the bottom tier fell from 20 percent to 15.7 percent. Just under 14 percent live in the middle tier, a proportion unchanged over the decade.
• The young-adult workforce comprises the middle and upper quintiles: Over 40 percent of the middle quintile is between the ages of 25 and 34.
• Seniors are highly polarized: Roughly a quarter of Cambridge residents 65 and older are in the highest-income quintile, while more than 30 percent are in the lowest, up from 25 percent of seniors a decade ago.

Race and Ethnicity

Race and ethnicity are highly correlated with income in Cambridge. People of color comprise almost 60 percent of the population in the lowest-income quintile and just 26 percent in the highest. And while Cambridge has become more diverse within every quintile, the change has not been uniform.

• The Asian population makes up a larger share of the top and middle quintiles today than a decade ago, increasing to nearly 13 percent of the top from 7.7 percent, and to 17 percent of the middle, from 8.8 percent.
• The Latinx population became both a larger share of the middle quintile, rising from 6.7 percent to 10.5 percent, and a larger share of the lowest-income quintile, increasing from 10 percent to 14 percent.
• The Black population has become a larger share of the lowest two quintiles. In fact, nearly 40 percent of the entire Black population in Cambridge now lives in the bottom quintile of households.

Household Types

The types of households and families vary widely across the quintiles, with individuals living alone clustered in the two lowest-income quintiles; nonfamily households, including unmarried partners and adult roommates, living in the middle tier; and traditional “nuclear families” clustered at the top.

• More than 65 percent of all households in the first quintile and half of those in the second quintile are individuals living alone, whereas more than 60 percent of households in the top quintile are married couples.
• In the middle and fourth quintiles, nearly a third of all households are nonfamily groups living together or married couples without children.
• The majority of children live in the top tier, and there are stark economic differences in family types over the five groupings. More than a third of all single-parent families with children live in the lowest-income quintile, while more than 40 percent of married-couple families with children live in the highest-income quintile.

Housing and Community

More than half of all households in the lowest-income quintile spend 50 percent or more of their income on housing. In a city dominated by renters, the top quintile stands out as majority homeowners. At least two-thirds of those in the bottom 80 percent of households are renters, compared with just 37 percent in the top quintile. While small, this is a higher share than a decade ago, when just a quarter were renters, indicating that there are now more high-income renters living in Cambridge. At the same time, the second quintile has the highest share of households that own their home outright — nearly 17 percent — suggesting that while these households may be cash poor, they have some wealth in the form of assets.

Cambridge has a notoriously high cost of living, which is reflected in the level of housing cost burden among lower-income households. Virtually all renters and homeowners in the two lowest-income quintiles are considered housing cost–burdened in that they are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. This includes more than half of the households in the lowest-income quintile, which are extremely cost-burdened and spend more than half of their income on housing. By contrast, almost no households in the top two quintiles are housing cost-burdened.

Renters, owners, and movers
Levels of housing mobility and stability vary across the economic spectrum, with a highly mobile middle and polarized long-term populations.

• Almost half of the households in the middle quintile have lived in their homes for less than two years, while approximately one-third of households in the lowest- and highest-income quintiles have lived in their homes for a decade or longer.
• Among long-term residents who have lived in their homes for more than 10 years, there is a stark difference in housing tenure by quintile: more than 95 percent of long-term residents in the top quintile own their homes, whereas 63 percent of long-term residents in the first quintile rent — a rate that speaks to the impact of Cambridge’s large share of affordable low-income housing. Across the spectrum, the share of long-term residents who are renters has declined from 36 percent to 26 percent in the second quintile and 31.6 percent to 21 percent in the middle quintile.

Education and Workforce

More college degrees, fewer high school diplomas. Cambridge is one of the most highly educated cities in the nation, though differences remain across the quintiles. Within the top three quintiles, not only do more than half of working-age adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, but also more than half have at least a master’s degree. While adults in the lowest-income quintile have much lower rates of educational attainment, 45 percent of working-age adults nevertheless have at least a bachelor’s degree — a rate that many communities would strive for. That said, 39 percent of adults in the lowest-income tier have a high school diploma or less.

Disparities in educational attainment correlate with labor force disparities, despite Cambridge’s booming economy. Even after a decade of record-high job growth and record-low unemployment, just 37 percent of working-age adults in the first quintile were in the labor force and employed, compared with at least 75 percent for adults in every other quintile. An additional 8 percent were unemployed — compared with a citywide average of less than 3 percent — and the remaining 54.5 percent were not participating in the labor force, either through choice or because they’d become discouraged.

Innovation Economy Employment

The growth in innovation jobs has mostly benefited the middle and fourth quintiles. Across the income spectrum, the implications of the innovation boom are apparent. A decade ago, education occupations were among the top jobs held by adults in nearly all the quintiles in Cambridge — including the lowest-income quintile, where they accounted for more than 20 percent of jobs. Today, occupations in the innovation cluster have overtaken those in education in nearly all quintiles except the lowest-income one. There, lower-wage, service-sector jobs in health care and food service are the dominant employment options. In fact, just 8.5 percent of adults in this quintile hold an innovation-cluster occupation, compared with more than 20 percent of the middle, fourth, and top quintiles.