02601Barnstable Town, Massachusetts

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 02601.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 22% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3349th of 6,210 published ZIP areas53
Schools2480th of 4,422 published ZIP areas47
Growth4047th of 5,428 published ZIP areas35
Housing affordability6556th of 6,685 published ZIP areas29
Climate4168th of 6,789 published ZIP areas66
Physical resilienceTop 33% of 6,709 published ZIP areas72
Access6256th of 6,791 published ZIP areas64
Economic stability4813th of 6,742 published ZIP areas47
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.7% and median household income $61,143, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 101 units authorized over the past twelve months, 63% below the prior year.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 35% of median household income and the median home is 7.2 times it.

At a glance

Population
16,071
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,143
Bottom 32% nationally
Density
1,833/sq mi
8.8 sq mi of land
Median age
44.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Barnstable Town
Massachusetts
Metro area
Barnstable Town, MA
Nearest major airport
PVD
59 mi · Rhode Island TF Green Intl
Median home value
$440,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 78% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 28,255 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,561$61,143Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,836$38,343Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.6%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.6 minBottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.0%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,255Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 45%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 28%June 2026
Labor force29,330Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force participation66.5%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$69,930Top 40%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$56,360Top 24%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 22%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,143 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 — Barnstable Town, MA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons3,650$36,790
General and Operations Managers3,210$100,590
Waiters and Waitresses2,970$38,380
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,950$36,100
Cashiers2,650$36,640
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,300$42,520

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 Barnstable Town, MA, the city containing this ZIP code.

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
17.6%
Bottom 26% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
38.3%
Bottom 45% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Barnstable HighBarnstable1,65210.716%37%
Sturgis Charter Public School · charterSturgis Charter Public8259.4
Barnstable Intermediate SchoolBarnstable64210.2
Hyannis West ElementaryBarnstable3098.817%37%
Barnstable Community Innovation SchoolBarnstable29311.327%47%
Enoch Cobb Early Learning CenterBarnstable15021.4

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 Massachusetts’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 $1,767 takes 35% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
34.7%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
7.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,767
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$440,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income7.20Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate52.2%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5349,144Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$107$1,767Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$31,443$440,100Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income34.7%Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.3%Top 32%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 →
Development Momentum
35/ 100
Ranks 4047 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

66% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
101
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 41% nationally
Year over year
−63%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
66.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Barnstable Town, MA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 36, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HYANNIS BARNSTABLE MUNI AP, 0.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation44.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
46
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

72 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, coastal flooding and lightning.

Coastal floodingHigh
HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, earthquake, hail, strong wind, wildfire, ice storm, tornado, heat wave, drought, cold wave, winter weather.

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.

Barnstable County records 1.1 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 3.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.5 per 100,000 residents in Barnstable County.

Homicide
1.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.2
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 Barnstable 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 02601 rather than 02601 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 59 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD59 mi8,700 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS61 mi10,083 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT105 mi9,250 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)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

02601 vs Barnstable Town

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

02601
Barnstable Town
Median household income
$61,143
vs
$91,982
Per capita income
$38,343
vs
$56,079
Population density
1,833/sq mi
vs
827/sq mi
Median home value
$440,100
vs
$602,500
Median gross rent
$1,767
vs
$1,917
Homeownership rate
52.2%
vs
75.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
28.0%
vs
42.1%
Poverty rate
14.6%
vs
7.4%
Median age
44.1
vs
49.1

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.