AreaProfile

98444Parkland, Washington

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 98444.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Housing affordability6240th of 6,685 published ZIP areas42
ClimateTop 36% of 6,789 published ZIP areas74
Physical resilience4991st of 6,709 published ZIP areas32
Access4578th of 6,791 published ZIP areas87
Economic stability3688th of 6,742 published ZIP areas57
The quick read

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 30% of median household income and the median home is 6.4 times it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by earthquake, heat wave and avalanche.

A typical July reaches 76°F and a typical January falls to 36°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
35,754
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,342
Bottom 39% nationally
Density
5,147/sq mi
6.9 sq mi of land
Median age
33.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Parkland
Washington
Metro area
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Nearest major airport
SEA
22 mi · Seattle-Tacoma Intl
Median home value
$416,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,918$65,342Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,518$31,858Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.2%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.0 minTop 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.9%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation69.6%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,790Top 6%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$72,610Top 4%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202465k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,342 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 — Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Software Developers92,770$167,280
Home Health and Personal Care Aides54,670$48,210
Fast Food and Counter Workers49,190$39,150
Retail Salespersons46,620$42,080
Registered Nurses39,900$128,260
Business Operations Specialists, All Other38,800$101,920

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.

There are 17.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Washington High SchoolFranklin Pierce School District98917.7
Perry G Keithley Middle SchoolFranklin Pierce School District80417.9
Brookdale ElementaryFranklin Pierce School District48315.1
Collins ElementaryFranklin Pierce School District46615.0
Helen Stafford Elementary SchoolTacoma School District45319.7
Industrial Design Engineering and ArtsTacoma School District39217.8
James Sales ElementaryFranklin Pierce School District38716.1
Christensen ElementaryFranklin Pierce School District34615.0
Fern Hill Elementary SchoolTacoma School District31118.3
Hewins Early Learning CenterFranklin Pierce School District26633.3

68.1% 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 Washington’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 $1,647 takes 30% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
30.2%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,647
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$416,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.37Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate44.0%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±61514,109Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$38$1,647Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,736$416,400Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income30.2%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 34%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

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 76°F and January a low of 36°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.0 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TACOMA NARROWS AP, 9.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation42.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low36°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high76°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing24°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

32 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeHigh
Volcanic activityModerate
AvalancheModerate
Heat waveModerate
LandslideModerate

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

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 22 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Seattle-Tacoma IntlSEA22 mi11,901 ft
Boeing Fld/King County IntlBFI27 mi10,007 ft
Portland IntlPDX108 mi11,000 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
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)
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

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.

98444 vs Parkland

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

98444
Parkland
Median household income
$65,342
vs
$72,239
Per capita income
$31,858
vs
$34,072
Population density
5,147/sq mi
vs
4,482/sq mi
Median home value
$416,400
vs
$423,000
Median gross rent
$1,647
vs
$1,663
Homeownership rate
44.0%
vs
51.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
15.9%
vs
17.5%
Poverty rate
16.2%
vs
13.0%
Median age
33.6
vs
34.2

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.