02718Taunton, Massachusetts

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 02718.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 19% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3487th of 6,210 published ZIP areas52
Schools2598th of 4,422 published ZIP areas45
GrowthTop 4% of 5,428 published ZIP areas80
Housing affordabilityTop 44% of 6,685 published ZIP areas84
Climate5091st of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 12% of 6,709 published ZIP areas89
Access4018th of 6,791 published ZIP areas90
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 6,742 published ZIP areas74
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $109,500, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 406 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 823% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 02718 in the top 12% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
6,878
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$109,500
Top 14% nationally
Density
668/sq mi
10.3 sq mi of land
Median age
40.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Taunton
Massachusetts
Metro area
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
Nearest major airport
PVD
24 mi · Rhode Island TF Green Intl
Median home value
$469,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 35% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.1% over the past year, to 31,877 employed residents.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$13,769$109,500Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,048$44,958Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.1%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.7 minTop 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.3%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment31,877Bottom 33%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.1%Top 24%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 17%June 2026
Labor force33,481Bottom 33%June 2026
Labor force participation72.3%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$69,290Top 42%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$53,680Top 36%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 42%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024110k90k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $109,500 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 — Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers21,530$33,700
Retail Salespersons20,910$35,230
Home Health and Personal Care Aides15,670$40,890
Registered Nurses15,180$99,880
Cashiers14,440$34,540
General and Operations Managers14,110$110,360

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 Taunton, MA, the city containing this ZIP code.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.3%
Bottom 34% in Massachusetts
Reading proficiency
36.6%
Bottom 42% in Massachusetts
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Joseph H MartinTaunton64714.417%32%
East Taunton ElementaryTaunton56412.822%42%

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 $1,703 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,703
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$469,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.28Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate88.5%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2322,580Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$308$1,703Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$25,150$469,200Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.7%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.7%Bottom 21%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
80/ 100
Top 4% 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.

81% 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 6.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
406
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.7
Top 21% nationally
Year over year
+823%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
81.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Taunton, 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 84°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 38, in the Good band, and about 2 days a year pass 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 TAUNTON MUNI AP, 1.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation47.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index38.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
38
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
53
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
DroughtModerate

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

Bristol County records 1.9 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 4.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.9 per 100,000 residents in Bristol County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.3
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 Bristol 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 02718 rather than 02718 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 24 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD24 mi8,700 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS35 mi10,083 ft
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT77 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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Area Score
69
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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.

02718 vs Taunton

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

02718
Taunton
Median household income
$109,500
vs
$79,283
Per capita income
$44,958
vs
$38,819
Population density
668/sq mi
vs
1,294/sq mi
Median home value
$469,200
vs
$422,800
Median gross rent
$1,703
vs
$1,324
Homeownership rate
88.5%
vs
62.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
28.3%
vs
23.9%
Poverty rate
9.1%
vs
13.0%
Median age
40.1
vs
38.9

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.