98512Tumwater, Washington

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 98512.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 25% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 5% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured83
GrowthTop 8% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured76
Housing affordability3882nd of 6,685 ZIP areas measured75
Climate3666th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured69
Physical resilience5031st of 6,709 ZIP areas measured32
Access5867th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured72
Economic stabilityTop 29% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured71
The quick read

98512 ranks in the top 5% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $101,530.

298 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 9% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

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

At a glance

Population
31,864
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$101,530
Top 18% nationally
Density
230/sq mi
138.7 sq mi of land
Median age
40.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Tumwater
Washington
Metro area
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA
Nearest major airport
SEA
49 mi · Seattle-Tacoma Intl
Median home value
$472,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 83% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 14,634 employed residents.

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,093$101,530Top 18%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,591$50,372Top 19%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.2%Bottom 32%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.7 minBottom 33%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.7%Top 24%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,634Bottom 10%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.2%Top 12%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force15,188Bottom 9%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation64.3%Top 35%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$75,470Top 23%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$61,960Top 10%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 21%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 17%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024102k78k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $101,530 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 — Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,910$36,110
General and Operations Managers3,670$122,210
Home Health and Personal Care Aides3,370$44,060
Retail Salespersons3,180$37,350
Management Analysts2,770$88,790
Cashiers2,470$37,340

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 Tumwater, WA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 18.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
George Bush Middle SchoolTumwater School District76218.1
A G West Black Hills High SchoolTumwater School District75322.8
Tumwater Middle SchoolTumwater School District66519.6
Michael T Simmons ElementaryTumwater School District45713.4
Tumwater Hill ElementaryTumwater School District40016.7
Black Lake ElementaryTumwater School District38216.6
ESD 113 Consortium Reengagement ProgramCapital Region ESD 113344
Littlerock Elementary SchoolTumwater School District34316.3
Cascadia High SchoolTumwater School District13426.8
Thurs Co Juv Det/Tumwater West ETumwater School District55.0

36.9% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 6% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,765 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
106.4

Prices here run about 6% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
20.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,765
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$472,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index106.4Top 27%of 6,0712023
Home price to income4.65Top 20%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.4%Bottom 34%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±63913,205Top 11%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$71$1,765Top 14%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,758$472,100Top 14%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.9%Top 30%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.7%Bottom 16%of 33,0282024 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
76/ 100
Top 8% 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.

65% 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 11.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
298
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
11.1
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
−9%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
65.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Tumwater, WA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 78°F and January a low of 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 50.6 inches, including 3.9 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 26, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station OLYMPIA AP, 7.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation50.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall3.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high78°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index26.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing25°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
26
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
44
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

32 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
EarthquakeElevated
Volcanic activityModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Thurston County records 4.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 31.8 per 100,000 residents in Thurston County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
31.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
23.4
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 Thurston 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 98512 rather than 98512 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 49 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Seattle-Tacoma IntlSEA49 mi11,901 ft
Boeing Fld/King County IntlBFI53 mi10,007 ft
Portland IntlPDX97 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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Area Score
67
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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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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
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.

98512 vs Tumwater

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

98512
Tumwater
Median household income
$101,530
vs
$95,212
Per capita income
$50,372
vs
$46,975
Population density
230/sq mi
vs
1,519/sq mi
Median home value
$472,100
vs
$472,200
Median gross rent
$1,765
vs
$1,779
Homeownership rate
72.4%
vs
62.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
36.7%
vs
42.9%
Poverty rate
7.2%
vs
7.0%
Median age
40.6
vs
37.1

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.