New U.S. Census Bureau data show an inflation-adjusted 8% increase in New Hampshire’s statewide median household income from the 2015-2019 period to the 2020-2024 period. Median household income rose from approximately $91,674 to $99,031, respectively, across these two periods. Cities and towns in southeastern New Hampshire continued to have higher median household incomes than the statewide level across both periods. In the Upper Valley, Hanover, Lyme, and Plainfield maintained higher median incomes, while the Lakes Region was mixed, with some towns above the statewide median and other towns below or statistically indistinguishable. Most municipalities did not have a measurable change in median household income between 2015-2019 and 2020-2024, with about 83.5% of municipalities showing no statistical change. When median incomes did change, there were more increases than decreases.
Boston-area job and wage growth remains a major driver of New Hampshire’s economy, particularly in the southern counties, which have many residents that work for employers tied to the Boston labor market. The 2020-2024 data reflect COVID-19 pandemic-led demographic shifts into more rural areas, including changes tied to remote work and migration.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) collects information about the demographics and housing conditions of people living in the United States, from the national level to small communities. To produce reliable statistics for small communities, the U.S. Census Bureau publishes five-year estimates collected over five consecutive years. Using five years of data increases the sample size and improves reliability.
Below are six standout trends on income in New Hampshire from the newly released data.
Higher Median Household Incomes in New Hampshire’s Southeastern Towns
Median household incomes in two of the four southeastern New Hampshire Counties, Hillsborough and Rockingham, are above the statewide median. Of the 68 communities in those counties, 60% (41 communities) have a statistically significant higher median income than the statewide median.
Many smaller suburban and exurban towns in the southeast report higher incomes than the statewide median. Those higher incomes reflect the economic vitality of the Boston area and the higher wage levels connected to labor markets in eastern Massachusetts.
The newly released 2020–2024 ACS five-year estimates place New Hampshire’s statewide median household income at $99,031 in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars. That figure exceeds the prior 2019–2023 five-year estimate of about $95,628.
Across New Hampshire’s 259 cities, towns, and townships, 58 have median incomes above the statewide median, while another 68 fall below. The 133 remaining municipalities are statistically indistinguishable from the statewide median income, including small towns that often have large margins of error due to limited data collected within their borders.
Several of the highest-income towns in the southeast are Newfields ($197,885), Windham ($189,583), New Castle ($176,953), and Hampton Falls ($166,157) and all have estimated median household incomes exceeding the statewide median of $99,031. These data follow a pattern that has appeared across many ACS five-year releases, with higher estimated median incomes in smaller towns within commuting distance of the Boston metropolitan area.
High Median Incomes in other Parts of the State
Other higher-income areas appear outside the southeast. Hanover’s estimated median household income of $166,583 is well above the statewide median, and towns near Hanover, including Lyme ($133,906) and Plainfield ($122,656), also have estimated median household incomes above the statewide median.
The 2020–2024 ACS data show that higher-income communities are present in parts of the Lakes Region, but results vary across towns. Incomes in Gilford and Sandwich sit above the statewide median, while those in Alton, Wolfeboro, and Tuftonboro, are statistically indistinguishable from the statewide median and Belmont and Laconia are below.
While these data can provide helpful insights, they should be used with caution, particularly when comparing communities to each other. These data are based on surveys, and small towns can have had very little survey data collected from them to form the basis of these estimates. Margins of error provide an indication as to the level of certainty in these estimates; communities with different estimated median household incomes may be statistically indistinguishable from each other if the margins of error around one estimate bracket the estimated median income for another. Comparisons to the statewide median household income provide relatively reliable insights into the relative household incomes in a community, due to more data collected statewide in these surveys.
Municipal Medium Income after COVID-19 Remained Mostly Stable
About 83.5% of New Hampshire municipalities showed no significant change in median income across the state. The statewide median household income increased by about 8% between these two periods, after adjusting for inflation. Among municipalities with significant median income growth, Ossipee (62%) and Campton (60%) saw the largest increases.
Urban Income Growth after COVID-19
Some of New Hampshire’s cities saw income growth between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 periods. Among the 15 most populous municipalities, 4 out of 15 posted a significant increase in median income: Derry (19%), Keene (15%), Manchester (12%), and Nashua (8%), while none of New Hampshire’s large municipalities had a significant decrease in median income. These data could be suggesting New Hampshire’s cities are becoming more attractive to higher-earning professionals, likely driven by remote work flexibility and quality-of-life factors, and that more prohibitively expensive housing options in smaller towns in the state are encouraging more households with higher incomes to move to, or remain in, cities and towns that offer affordable housing opportunities.
Other Regional Standouts
Several other regional trends stand out. The Lakes Region had a high concentration of communities that saw a significant increase in median household income between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 periods. Ossipee saw nearly a 62% increase in inflation-adjusted median income, going from $55,958 to $90,521, and Barnstead saw 30% growth from $85,864 to $111,660.
In the Upper Connecticut River Valley, a few towns saw a significant increase in median household income. Lebanon’s median income increased by about 21% after adjusting for inflation, Plainfield by about 20%, and Haverhill by about 38%. The other towns in the region, including places like Hanover, Orford, Enfield, Lyme, Cornish, Canaan, and Claremont did not see any significant change in median income between 2015–2019 and 2020–2024.
Disparities Across and Within Geographies
While these measurements of median household income provide insights into differences in the financial well-being of Granite Staters across geographies, medians only show the estimated incomes of the middle household in each community. Half of households have higher incomes, and half have lower incomes. Data availability is too limited to show the full distribution of incomes in each community, but other data can provide deeper insights. Federal tax return data can offer snapshots of income for different filer groups, showing big differences in the percentage of filers with more than $100,000 in reported income across communities. Statewide, nearly one in four households had incomes below $50,000 in 2024, despite a median household income of about twice that amount.
These and other data indicate that financial well-being is not evenly distributed across New Hampshire, and that individuals and families can face substantially different economic realities both between neighboring communities and within their own cities and towns.