02888Warwick, Rhode Island

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 02888.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 11% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 38% of 6,210 published ZIP areas60
SchoolsTop 29% of 4,422 published ZIP areas68
GrowthTop 31% of 5,428 published ZIP areas61
Housing affordabilityTop 30% of 6,685 published ZIP areas91
Climate4442nd of 6,789 published ZIP areas65
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 6,709 published ZIP areas86
AccessTop 15% of 6,791 published ZIP areas99
Economic stabilityTop 28% of 6,742 published ZIP areas71
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 470 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 33% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 02888 in the top 15% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 2 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
19,134
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,867
Top 25% nationally
Density
3,245/sq mi
5.9 sq mi of land
Median age
43.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Warwick
Rhode Island
Metro area
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
Nearest major airport
PVD
2 mi · Rhode Island TF Green Intl
Median home value
$350,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.8% is lower than 98% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.6% over the past year, to 43,438 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$11,359$91,867Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,028$46,319Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.5 minBottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.2%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment43,438Bottom 43%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.1%Bottom 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.6%Bottom 12%June 2026
Labor force44,679Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force participation66.1%Top 28%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)-1.0%Bottom 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.8%Bottom 2%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202492k78k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,867 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 Warwick, RI, the city containing this ZIP code.

14% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 34% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
14.2%
Top 38% in Rhode Island
Reading proficiency
33.6%
Top 38% in Rhode Island
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Pilgrim High SchoolWarwick1,13710.5
Holliman SchoolWarwick28016.518%38%
Norwood SchoolWarwick26511.59%24%
Wyman SchoolWarwick26215.416%38%
Warwick Early Learning CenterWarwick20712.2

48.3% 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 Rhode Island’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 $1,271 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,271
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$350,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.81Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.3%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5228,893Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$111$1,271Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,388$350,000Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.6%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.6%Bottom 15%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
61/ 100
Top 31% 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.

80% 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 5.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
470
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.7
Top 27% nationally
Year over year
+33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
80.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Warwick, RI, 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 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.5 inches, including 36.6 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 31, 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 PROVIDENCE T F GREEN AP, 2.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation47.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall36.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index31.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
31
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
47
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

86 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

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

Kent 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 4.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.4 per 100,000 residents in Kent County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.2
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 Kent 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 02888 rather than 02888 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 2 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD2 mi8,700 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS47 mi10,083 ft
Bradley IntlBDL67 mi9,510 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
73
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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.

02888 vs Warwick

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

02888
Warwick
Median household income
$91,867
vs
$88,708
Per capita income
$46,319
vs
$48,016
Population density
3,245/sq mi
vs
2,376/sq mi
Median home value
$350,000
vs
$354,600
Median gross rent
$1,271
vs
$1,363
Homeownership rate
80.3%
vs
73.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
33.2%
vs
33.7%
Poverty rate
8.2%
vs
7.6%
Median age
43.6
vs
44.3

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.