Comparing By the Numbers Assignment

When deciding to compare Boston, MA to another city, I tried to pick one as different as possible, while still having urban areas and a population over 200,000. This is why Winston-Salem, NC seemed like the perfect city for this comparison. Unlike the densely Boston or Manhattan, which are small geographical spaces with very dense populations, Winston-Salem has a much more spread out and diverse landscape, making it completely different from “the big city life.” The 2020 median household income in Boston was $76,298, while it was only $47,269 in Winson-Salem. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are guaranteed to find better work just by living in Boston. It’s also worth noting that living in larger cities such as Boston is far more expensive to live in than in medium cities such as Winston-Salem. In 2020, the median property value in Boston, MA, was $581,200, and the homeownership rate was only 35.3%.On the other hand, the median property value in Winston-Salem, NC, was $152,000, and the homeownership rate was 54.6%. Not only are property values and costs nearly one-fourth the cost of Boston, but this also does not factor in the size or scenery of the property. In other words, you have to pay a significant amount more for a lot less when living in Boston.  Another interesting piece of information related to the diversity of both cities regarding ethnicities. One may assume that a crowded city like Boston would be far more diverse than a medium Southern city like Winston-Salem, but the census data shows otherwise. For example, the Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) makes up approximately 44.7% of the population of Boston, while it is 45.7% of the Winston-Salem population. While the foreign-born population of Boston’s population of 28.2% in 2020 is higher than Winston-Salem’s 9.92%, they still have a nearly equal amount of ethnic diversity. Furthermore, these numbers do not make one city better than the other, but they do show just how much more one can expect when living in a less expensive, medium city. Winston-Salem, NC & Boston, MA | Data USA