Population and population growth impact many aspects of life in Acton, from school population, to traffic density, to drinking water demand, to viability of the Town Meeting form of governance. To provide a context for these and other issues, the Acton Exchange offers this backgrounder, digging into who lives in Acton and how fast Acton’s population has grown. This article is based on the Census Data for Acton, which itself is based on the 2020 census with some updating in 2023.
If you look at the U.S. census data below, then you’ll see that Acton’s population was 2,162 in 1920. Over the next century it increased more than tenfold, to 24,021 in 2020. But if you examine the data more closely, then you will notice that the town growth rate differed greatly over the years. The fastest growth, proportionally, was back in the 1950s and 1960s, and slowest population growth was in the 1980s.
| Year | Population | Growth since prior census |
| 1920 | 2,162 | |
| 1930 | 2,482 | 14.8% |
| 1940 | 2,701 | 8.8% |
| 1950 | 3,510 | 30.0% |
| 1960 | 7,238 | 106.2% |
| 1970 | 14,770 | 104.1% |
| 1980 | 17,544 | 18.8% |
| 1990 | 17,872 | 1.9% |
| 2000 | 20,331 | 13.8% |
| 2010 | 21,924 | 7.8% |
| 2020 | 24,021 | 9.6% |
A hundred years of population growth in Acton. Table: Wikipedia.
Different residents’ impressions of how fast Acton’s population has grown could be shaped by how old they are or how long they’ve lived in town.
Populations and People:
The total population at the most recent census was 24,021. And the median age in Acton was 44.1, compared to 39.2 for Middlesex County. But median age doesn’t tell the whole story. It may be more useful to note that 16.2% of the town’s population was 65 years old or older, compared to 16.8% for Middlesex County. And 24.3% of Acton’s population was under 18 years old, compared to 19.3% for Middlesex County.
But if you examine the “population pyramid” for Acton closely, you will see that 46.9% of the town’s population was 35-64, while only 10.0% was 20-34. So, the missing block in the community’s “population pyramid” is the group of people who are 20 to 34 years old.
Ann Cohen of Barrett Sotheby’s International Realty, says, “I’m seeing young adults choosing to live in towns that are less expensive…Waiting until children are just about to start school is when I see them moving into towns with high-performing school districts. What I gather is, saving on monthly costs is the priority for that age group.”
If you drill down from the overview from the US Census Bureau website, you can find detailed information about the following aspects of Acton’s population (and much more):
Income and Poverty
The median household income in Acton was $153,338, compared to $123,705 for Middlesex County. Married-couple families had a median household income of $220,517, while nonfamily households, where the householder lives alone or with people who are not related to them, had a median household income of $66,233. Of the people living in Acton, 3.4% live in poverty, compared to 7.7% for Middlesex County.
Education
In terms of educational attainment, 77.6% of the town’s population 25 years and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 60.0% for Middlesex County.
Employment
The Census data for Acton also shows that 65.3% of workers are employees of a private company, 13.1% are private not-for-profit wage and salary workers, 10.5% are local, state, and federal government workers, 6.5% of workers are self-employed in their own not-incorporated businesses or are unpaid family workers, while 4.6% of workers are self-employed in their own incorporated businesses. Workers in Acton spend an average of 35.2 minutes traveling to work, compared to an average of 30.2 minutes for workers in Middlesex County. If you think this figure is low, that’s because it’s an average – and 34.0% of the community’s workers 16 years and older work from home.
Housing
The 24,021 people who lived in Acton lived in 9,219 housing units. The homeownership rate in Acton was 76.0%, compared to 61.4% for Middlesex County. Forty-two percent of the housing units in 2023 had four or more bedrooms, 46.2% had two to three bedrooms, and 10.6% had one bedroom.
In 2023, 17.9% of the houses were valued at $1 million or more, 63.8% were valued at $500,000 to $999,999, 9.2% were valued at $300,00 to $499,999, 4.8% were valued at $200,000 to $299,999, and 4.2% were valued at $199,999 or less.
In 2023, the median gross rent in Acton was $1,911, compared to $2,193 for Middlesex County. There was a wide range of rents that were being paid in town. The data shows 14.0% was $3,000 or more, 30.3% was $2,000 to $2,999, 32.1% was $1,500-$1,999, 14.6% was $1,000 to $1,4999, and 9.0% was $999 or less.
A higher proportion of residents (13.5%) of rented-occupied units moved in recently–in 2021 or later–compared to 3.6% of residents of owner-occupied units.
Acton’s population growth over the past 100 years is complicated and uneven. Changes in education, employment, and housing mean variation in opinions about the issues that are related to population and population growth.
Greg Jarboe is a member of the Acton Economic Development Committee and Finance Committee. He is the Acton Exchange beat reporter for the Council on Aging and issues pertaining to seniors.