04473Orono, Maine

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 04473.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 11% of 6,210 published ZIP areas77
SchoolsTop 2% of 4,422 published ZIP areas93
Housing affordability4402nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas69
Climate6726th of 6,789 published ZIP areas50
Physical resilienceTop 18% of 6,709 published ZIP areas84
Access3884th of 6,791 published ZIP areas90
Economic stability5390th of 6,742 published ZIP areas41
The quick read

04473 ranks in the top 11% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.9% and median household income of $61,528.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 04473 in the top 18% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 7 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
8,371
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,528
Bottom 32% nationally
Density
483/sq mi
17.3 sq mi of land
Median age
26.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Orono
Maine
Metro area
Bangor, ME
Nearest major airport
BGR
7 mi · Bangor Intl
Median home value
$272,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.9% is lower than 97% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.3% over the past year, to 73,333 employed residents.

67% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,846$61,528Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,675$37,978Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate24.9%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.7 minBottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher66.9%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment73,333Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.2%Top 22%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.3%Top 24%June 2026
Labor force75,516Top 42%June 2026
Labor force participation63.7%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,860Bottom 22%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,960Bottom 26%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.9%Bottom 3%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202462k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,528 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Bangor, ME
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,550$34,140
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,290$37,900
Retail Salespersons2,210$35,560
Registered Nurses2,190$93,940
Cashiers1,990$32,200
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers1,440$56,250

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Orono, ME, the city containing this ZIP code.

91% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 91% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
90.7%
Top 7% in Maine
Reading proficiency
91.3%
Top 7% in Maine
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Orono High SchoolRSU 2633710.9
Asa C Adams SchoolRSU 2633612.089%90%
Orono Middle SchoolRSU 2615410.395%95%

38.7% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Maine’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,255 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,255
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$272,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.43Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate46.6%Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2073,633Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$112$1,255Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$40,159$272,600Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.5%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.9%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 6°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 33, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station OLD TOWN 2 W, 3.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation44.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low6°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index33.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing51°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
33
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
49
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

84 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, winter weather and ice storm.

Winter weatherModerate
Ice stormHigh
HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, inland flooding, cold wave, drought, strong wind, hail, avalanche, coastal flooding, heat wave, tornado, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Penobscot County records 1.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 14.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 33.5 per 100,000 residents in Penobscot County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
33.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
22.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Penobscot County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 04473 rather than 04473 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Bangor IntlBGR7 mi11,440 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT190 mi9,250 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS208 mi10,083 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

04473 vs Orono

How this ZIP area compares with Orono as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

04473
Orono
Median household income
$61,528
vs
$59,784
Per capita income
$37,978
vs
$25,481
Population density
483/sq mi
vs
1,581/sq mi
Median home value
$272,600
vs
$262,900
Median gross rent
$1,255
vs
$1,280
Homeownership rate
46.6%
vs
41.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
66.9%
vs
69.8%
Poverty rate
24.9%
vs
27.0%
Median age
26.0
vs
21.6

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.