02891Westerly, Rhode Island

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 02891.

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 35% of 6,210 published ZIP areas62
SchoolsTop 8% of 4,422 published ZIP areas84
Housing affordability3432nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas79
Climate3417th of 6,789 published ZIP areas70
Physical resilienceTop 11% of 6,709 published ZIP areas89
Access4896th of 6,791 published ZIP areas85
Economic stability3704th of 6,742 published ZIP areas57
The quick read

Unemployment is 2.5% and median household income $97,110, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.8 times that income.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 02891 in the top 11% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
21,587
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$97,110
Top 21% nationally
Density
821/sq mi
26.3 sq mi of land
Median age
53.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Westerly
Rhode Island
Metro area
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
Nearest major airport
PVD
31 mi · Rhode Island TF Green Intl
Median home value
$470,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.5% is lower than 99% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.9% over the past year, to 65,749 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,626$97,110Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,309$60,285Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.5%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.2 minBottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher46.1%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment65,749Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.6%Bottom 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.9%Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force67,456Top 45%June 2026
Labor force participation62.2%Top 44%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)-0.7%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.5%Bottom 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202497k82k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $97,110 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 Westerly, RI, the city containing this ZIP code.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.2%
Top 21% in Rhode Island
Reading proficiency
39.1%
Top 17% in Rhode Island
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Westerly High SchoolWesterly6509.6
Westerly Middle SchoolWesterly63911.010%35%
Dunn's Corners SchoolWesterly26410.238%46%
Springbrook Elementary SchoolWesterly2439.315%39%
State Street SchoolWesterly2129.629%45%
Westerly Inclusion Preschool PWesterly8712.4

43.1% 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 $1,266 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,266
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$470,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.84Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.6%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±43412,345Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$129$1,266Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,480$470,000Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.6%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate21.0%Top 25%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

6 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 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and about 3 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 WESTERLY STATE AP, 0.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index52.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation42.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
52
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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, coastal flooding and heat wave.

HurricaneElevated
Coastal floodingElevated
Heat waveModerate

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

Washington County records 1.3 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 7.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 residents in Washington County.

Homicide
1.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.5
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 Washington 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 02891 rather than 02891 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 31 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rhode Island TF Green IntlPVD31 mi8,700 ft
Bradley IntlBDL61 mi9,510 ft
Westfield-Barnes RgnlBAF73 mi9,000 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.

02891 vs Westerly

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

02891
Westerly
Median household income
$97,110
vs
$95,207
Per capita income
$60,285
vs
$53,043
Population density
821/sq mi
vs
1,163/sq mi
Median home value
$470,000
vs
$448,800
Median gross rent
$1,266
vs
$1,260
Homeownership rate
74.6%
vs
71.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
46.1%
vs
43.3%
Poverty rate
5.5%
vs
5.7%
Median age
53.5
vs
50.4

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.