02148Malden, Massachusetts

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 02148.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 29% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 35% of 6,210 published ZIP areas62
SchoolsTop 36% of 4,422 published ZIP areas63
Growth2793rd of 5,428 published ZIP areas50
Housing affordability5776th of 6,685 published ZIP areas51
Climate4247th of 6,789 published ZIP areas65
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 6,709 published ZIP areas88
AccessTop 15% of 6,791 published ZIP areas99
Economic stabilityTop 36% of 6,742 published ZIP areas67
The quick read

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.3 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 26% of it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 02148 in the top 13% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 5 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
65,906
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$100,606
Top 19% nationally
Density
13,061/sq mi
5.0 sq mi of land
Median age
35.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Malden
Massachusetts
Metro area
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Nearest major airport
BOS
5 mi · General Edward Lawrence Logan Intl
Median home value
$633,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 68% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 36,926 employed residents.

45% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 84% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,482$100,606Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,069$48,581Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.4%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.4 minTop 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher45.1%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment36,926Bottom 37%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.1%Top 49%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 27%June 2026
Labor force38,475Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force participation72.3%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$89,620Top 8%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$66,620Top 8%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 18%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 32%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024101k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $100,606 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 — Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides72,420$40,910
General and Operations Managers70,950$133,800
Registered Nurses64,240$106,180
Retail Salespersons64,150$36,850
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,130$36,290
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners43,160$46,550

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 Malden, MA, the city containing this ZIP code.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.1%
Top 39% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
47.8%
Top 37% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Malden HighMalden1,89016.2
Mystic Valley Regional Charter School · charterMystic Valley Regional Charter1,69815.653%61%
SalemwoodMalden1,03314.311%28%
BeebeMalden92115.131%43%
FerrywayMalden92013.525%45%
LindenMalden81313.831%53%
ForestdaleMalden53910.633%48%
Malden Early Learning CenterMalden2389.9

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 $2,204 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
26.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,204
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$633,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.30Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate41.3%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±73527,876Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$62$2,204Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$26,019$633,500Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.3%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.6%Bottom 31%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
50/ 100
Ranks 2793 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.

76% 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 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
25
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 14% nationally
Year over year
+92%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
76.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Malden, 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 82°F and January a low of 23°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.6 inches, including 49.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 37, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BOSTON LOGAN INTL AP, 5.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall49.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low23°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, earthquake and heat wave.

Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeElevated
Heat waveModerate
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, lightning, strong wind, cold wave, tornado, wildfire, winter weather, coastal flooding, landslide, hail.

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.

Middlesex County records 0.9 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 2.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.7 per 100,000 residents in Middlesex County.

Homicide
0.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.1
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 Middlesex 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 02148 rather than 02148 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS5 mi10,083 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT40 mi9,250 ft
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD52 mi8,700 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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Area Score
66
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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.

02148 vs Malden

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

02148
Malden
Median household income
$100,606
vs
$100,606
Per capita income
$48,581
vs
$48,581
Population density
13,061/sq mi
vs
13,064/sq mi
Median home value
$633,500
vs
$633,500
Median gross rent
$2,204
vs
$2,204
Homeownership rate
41.3%
vs
41.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
45.1%
vs
45.1%
Poverty rate
11.4%
vs
11.4%
Median age
35.8
vs
35.8

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.