All Counties in Massachusetts, Eviction Risk 2026
14 counties covering 248 incorporated cities and 5,031,418 residents. Statewide average landlord risk score is 5.8/10 (Elevated), but county-level scores vary sharply, urban counties with strong tenant protections or high rent burdens routinely score several points above rural counties.
| County↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | Lean↕ | Renters↕ | % income on rent↕ | Avg rent↕ | Poverty↕ | Cities↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Suffolk County | 820,664 | 6.3 | Dem | 57.6% | 31.6% | $2,149 | 12.6% | 5 |
| 02 | Franklin County | 31,834 | 5.9 | Dem | 36.3% | 32.2% | $1,126 | 14.4% | 8 |
| 03 | Worcester County | 461,972 | 5.9 | Dem | 33.7% | 32.1% | $1,321 | 10.1% | 35 |
| 04 | Bristol County | 390,826 | 5.9 | Dem | 29.3% | 34.5% | $1,368 | 9.3% | 15 |
| 05 | Middlesex County | 1.16M | 5.8 | Dem | 36.9% | 29.9% | $1,997 | 6.8% | 35 |
| 06 | Hampden County | 381,817 | 5.8 | Dem | 31.7% | 30.3% | $1,165 | 11.1% | 14 |
| 07 | Hampshire County | 97,447 | 5.8 | Dem | 33.5% | 33.9% | $1,288 | 14.0% | 8 |
| 08 | Norfolk County | 528,231 | 5.8 | Dem | 26.6% | 31.8% | $2,093 | 5.8% | 19 |
| 09 | Essex County | 661,892 | 5.8 | Dem | 31.3% | 33.1% | $1,749 | 7.4% | 24 |
| 10 | Plymouth County | 255,135 | 5.8 | Dem | 21.5% | 36.8% | $1,749 | 7.5% | 30 |
| 11 | Berkshire County | 74,084 | 5.8 | Dem | 38.0% | 32.3% | $1,032 | 11.1% | 10 |
| 12 | Barnstable County | 155,250 | 5.7 | Dem | 19.6% | 35.7% | $1,714 | 7.7% | 34 |
| 13 | Nantucket County | 10,598 | 5.6 | Dem | 14.1% | 26.2% | $2,228 | 16.1% | 3 |
| 14 | Dukes County | 6,155 | 5.6 | Dem | 18.6% | 32.5% | $1,805 | 9.0% | 8 |
Understanding county eviction risk in Massachusetts
Massachusetts's 14 counties span eviction-risk scores from 5.6 in Dukes County to 6.3 in Suffolk County , a 0.7-point gap that captures how unevenly rent burdens, renter populations, and local tenant politics are distributed across the state. The statewide average sits at 5.8/10 (Elevated), but that single figure hides far more than it reveals, the table above scores every county on the same 1–10 scale so you can see exactly where landlord exposure concentrates.
The counties carrying the most eviction risk, Suffolk County, Franklin County, Worcester County, are Massachusetts's denser, higher-cost markets. In Plymouth County, renters spend an average of 37% of household income on rent, and 22% of its homes are renter-occupied, the cost pressure that pushes filings up and pulls tenant-protection ordinances into local politics. Larger metros also concentrate the legal-aid networks and renter-organizing capacity that lift a county's score above the rural baseline.
At the other end of the table, Dukes County, Nantucket County, Barnstable County score lowest. These tend to be smaller, more rural counties where homeownership is the norm, rent-to-income ratios run lower, and local rent-control or just-cause ordinances are rare or state-preempted. Evictions still happen there, but the structural pressure that drives a high score (heavy rent burden, a large renter majority, organized tenant advocacy) is simply weaker.
Each county score is a population-weighted aggregate of every city scored inside it, so a county with one expensive urban core and a dozen quiet suburbs lands somewhere in between. Click any county row to drill into its cities ranked one by one, a zoomed heat map, and a full breakdown of rent burden, renter share, poverty rate, and political margin. For the statutes that apply statewide regardless of county, notice periods, security-deposit caps, just-cause and rent-control rules, see the Massachusetts state overview.