Middlesex County, Massachusetts: New American county. In 2024, voted D+39%. Democratic peak: D+53 in 1964.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+39MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- New AmericanAkashic typology
- Population
- 1,638,3652024 5-year
- Median household income
- $130,8472024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 66.8%2024 5-year
- Black
- 4.9%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 9.3%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+53 in 1964MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+47 in 1896MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Norfolk County, MA · similarity 0.99
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Middlesex CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Middlesex County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | −7.3% |
| 1896 | −47.0% |
| 1900 | −24.6% |
| 1904 | −24.8% |
| 1908 | −28.5% |
| 1912 | +6.0% |
| 1916 | −9.7% |
| 1920 | −42.4% |
| 1924 | −38.4% |
| 1928 | −4.4% |
| 1932 | −2.8% |
| 1936 | −2.4% |
| 1940 | −5.2% |
| 1944 | −5.8% |
| 1948 | +4.1% |
| 1952 | −14.3% |
| 1956 | −22.5% |
| 1960 | +18.2% |
| 1964 | +52.9% |
| 1968 | +31.5% |
| 1972 | +12.3% |
| 1976 | +15.5% |
| 1980 | +2.2% |
| 1984 | +0.8% |
| 1988 | +10.7% |
| 1992 | +21.8% |
| 1996 | +36.3% |
| 2000 | +31.2% |
| 2004 | +29.5% |
| 2008 | +30.1% |
| 2012 | +27.1% |
| 2016 | +37.2% |
| 2020 | +44.9% |
| 2024 | +39.2% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 554,471 | 235,118 | 814,832 | ||
| D | 617,196 | 226,956 | 869,347 | ||
| D | 520,360 | 219,793 | 808,630 | ||
| D | 471,804 | 267,321 | 754,170 | ||
| D | 464,484 | 245,766 | 726,031 | ||
| D | 440,862 | 237,815 | 688,960 | ||
| D | 404,043 | 198,914 | 657,048 | ||
| D | 398,190 | 169,926 | 627,977 | ||
| D | 343,994 | 193,703 | 689,453 | ||
| D | 361,563 | 290,352 | 662,628 | ||
| D | 325,065 | 319,604 | 646,754 | ||
| D | 270,751 | 256,999 | 637,679 | ||
| D | 359,919 | 260,044 | 643,382 | ||
| D | 345,343 | 269,064 | 617,651 | ||
| D | 370,310 | 188,304 | 577,596 | ||
| D | 439,790 | 134,729 | 576,810 | ||
| D | 356,130 | 246,126 | 603,516 | ||
| R | 216,668 | 343,125 | 561,373 | ||
| R | 236,910 | 316,069 | 554,605 | ||
| D | 248,240 | 228,262 | 485,908 | ||
| R | 210,253 | 236,102 | 447,080 | ||
| R | 218,663 | 242,658 | 463,437 | ||
| R | 189,512 | 199,704 | 419,520 | ||
| R | 174,257 | 184,486 | 365,751 | ||
| R | 173,339 | 189,189 | 363,841 | ||
| R | 64,544 | 162,530 | 255,235 | ||
| R | 61,661 | 156,636 | 224,078 | ||
| R | 49,844 | 60,802 | 113,072 | ||
| D | 36,689 | 30,511 | 102,867 | ||
| R | 31,362 | 58,672 | 95,887 | ||
| R | 32,889 | 55,704 | 91,868 | ||
| R | 29,476 | 49,638 | 81,955 | ||
| R | 19,591 | 57,281 | 80,266 | ||
| R | 34,769 | 40,375 | 77,090 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
Irish
18.3%
Italian
12.1%
English
9.7%
German
6.3%
French
3.2%
Polish
3.1%
American
3.1%
African American
3.9%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 38.9 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$130,847
Middlesex County ranks in the top 0.5% of US counties.
Middlesex County$130,847
Massachusetts$103,960
United States$80,734
Middlesex County ranks in the top 0.5% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
7.7%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 187.9%
Working age (18–64)7.4%
Seniors (65+)10.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
70.9%
speak English only
Other Indo-European12.5%
Asian & Pacific Islander8.0%
Spanish6.6%
Other languages2.1%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 45.9% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Home to Cambridge, Lowell, and a dense arc of Boston suburbs, Middlesex combines elite university towns with working-class post-industrial cities to produce some of the most lopsided Democratic margins in the Northeast, hitting D+39.2 in 2024.
Middlesex County has leaned Democratic in recent presidential elections, reaching a Democratic margin of fifty-three points in 1964. Between 2020 and 2024 it moved six points toward the Republican candidate — part of the sharpest rightward shift recorded among any group of places in the country.
Its demographics describe the shift: a 67% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $130,847, and a population of 1,638,365. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Norfolk County and Orleans Parish.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/25017/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
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Frequently asked questions
How did Middlesex County, Massachusetts vote in 2024?
In 2024, Middlesex County, Massachusetts voted Democratic by 39.2 points (D+39), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 814,832 votes cast, 554,471 went Democratic and 235,118 went Republican.
What is Middlesex County, Massachusetts's political typology?
Akashic places Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the "New American" typology — Communities where a large share of households speak a language other than English — multilingual, Democratic-leaning overall, yet the hardest-swinging bloc toward the Republican Party in 2024. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 19 times, Republican 15 times, and other 0 times.
When did Middlesex County, Massachusetts last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Middlesex County, Massachusetts voted Republican was 1956.
How many people live in Middlesex County, Massachusetts?
Middlesex County, Massachusetts has a population of 1,638,365 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Middlesex County, Massachusetts?
Median household income in Middlesex County, Massachusetts is $130,847 — above the national median of $80,734. The Massachusetts state median is $103,960.
What is the political history of Middlesex County, Massachusetts?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Middlesex County, Massachusetts from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 19 went Democratic and 15 went Republican. The county's typology — "New American" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.