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Demographics of Burlington, VT
Affluence Level in Burlington, VT
A middle-class area roughly in line with national averages across income, home values, education, and employment.
People of Burlington, VT
The people of Burlington, Vermont, today form a densely packed, highly educated, and predominantly white population of 44,649, with a distinctive character shaped by its role as a progressive college town and state capital. The city is notably young and transient, driven by the presence of the University of Vermont and Champlain College, and boasts a college-educated rate of 60.5%, among the highest in the nation for a city its size. While the population remains overwhelmingly white at 84.5%, Burlington has seen modest growth in its Black (3.6%), Hispanic (3.3%), and East/Southeast Asian (2.3%) communities, alongside a small but established Indian-subcontinent population (1.4%). The city’s identity is a blend of old Yankee stock, a strong countercultural and activist tradition, and a growing, if still limited, diversity that is concentrated in specific neighborhoods.
How the city was settled and grew
Burlington’s original European settlers were primarily Yankees from Connecticut and Massachusetts, drawn by land grants along Lake Champlain in the late 18th century. The city’s early growth was fueled by its role as a lumber and shipping hub, with the waterfront and the Old North End becoming the working-class heart of the city, populated by Irish and French-Canadian immigrants who arrived in the mid-19th century to work in the sawmills and on the docks. The French-Canadian community, in particular, became a defining cultural force, establishing parishes like St. Joseph’s and building a strong, insular presence in the Old North End that persists today. The arrival of the railroad and the establishment of the University of Vermont in the late 1800s brought a second wave of Yankee professionals and academics, who settled in the Hill Section (the area around UVM and the eastern heights), creating a distinct socio-economic divide between the lakeside working-class neighborhoods and the hilltop professional class. A smaller wave of Italian and Eastern European immigrants arrived around the turn of the 20th century, settling in the South End near the industrial rail yards, though their numbers were never as large as the French-Canadian and Irish populations.
Modern era (post-1965)
The post-1965 era reshaped Burlington’s population through two major forces: the expansion of UVM and the rise of a countercultural migration. The 1970s and 1980s saw an influx of young, college-educated activists and back-to-the-land types, many from the Northeast, who were drawn by Burlington’s small scale, natural beauty, and progressive politics. This wave settled heavily in the Old North End, which transitioned from a purely working-class French-Canadian enclave to a mix of longtime residents and new, often transient, renters and young families. The South End also saw a transformation, with its industrial spaces converted into artist lofts and breweries, attracting a creative class. The city’s foreign-born population remained very low (3.0% today), but the post-1965 immigration reforms did bring small, visible communities: a refugee resettlement program in the 1980s and 1990s brought a small number of Vietnamese and Bosnian families, who concentrated in the New North End and the more affordable parts of the Old North End. More recently, a small but growing Indian-subcontinent population (1.4%) has arrived, primarily tied to graduate programs at UVM and tech jobs at companies like GlobalFoundries in nearby Essex Junction, with many settling in the Hill Section near the university. The Black and Hispanic populations, while still small, have grown modestly, with Black residents more dispersed across the city and Hispanic residents concentrated in the Old North End and the Riverside area near the Winooski River.
The future
Burlington’s population is projected to remain relatively stable in size, but its demographic composition is slowly shifting. The city is becoming slightly more diverse, driven by a combination of international graduate students at UVM, refugee resettlement (with recent arrivals from Bhutan, Nepal, and Somalia), and a small but steady influx of domestic migrants from more diverse urban areas. The Old North End is likely to continue as the primary entry point for new immigrant and refugee communities, while the Hill Section will remain the hub for international students and faculty. The biggest demographic challenge is affordability: Burlington’s high cost of living and limited housing supply are pushing young families and lower-income residents, including many of the French-Canadian descendants who defined the city for generations, to surrounding towns like Winooski, South Burlington, and Colchester. This is making Burlington more transient and more dominated by students and affluent professionals, potentially reducing the city’s long-term cultural diversity even as its racial diversity inches upward. The next 10-20 years will likely see a continued slow diversification, but the city’s core identity will remain that of a highly educated, white, and politically progressive college town, with the Old North End serving as its most diverse and dynamic neighborhood.
For someone moving in now, Burlington offers a dense, walkable, and politically engaged community with a strong sense of place, but it is a place where the population is becoming more transient and less rooted in the working-class traditions that built it. The city’s future is one of managed growth and slow diversification, with the Old North End and Hill Section remaining the key neighborhoods for new arrivals, while the New North End and South End offer more stable, family-oriented environments. The bottom line: Burlington is a city that rewards engagement and community involvement, but newcomers should be prepared for a high cost of living and a population that is more homogenous than the national average, even as it slowly becomes more diverse.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-06-13T22:02:58.000Z
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