Albion, RI

ZIP code 02802 is assigned to Albion, RI, and falls within Providence County. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 531 people live inside it.

At 2,751 residents per square mile spread over 0.193 square miles, 02802 reads as a suburban area. It is a sparsely populated postal code, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings here sit well above the national picture. The median household income of $125,522 places 02802 in the upper reaches of American postal codes, ahead of 93% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Housing in 02802 costs close to the national median. A typical home is valued at $271,000 against a US median of $207,500. The split between owning and renting is fairly even at 57.3% owner-occupied, which tends to indicate a mix of housing types rather than one dominant form.

The building stock is dominated by larger apartment buildings of twenty units or more, which account for 45.1% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1938, making the housing here largely pre-war. The vacancy rate of 21.4% is high, which in many places reflects seasonal or second-home use rather than abandonment.

The population skews considerably older than the national median, with a median age of 61.3 against 42 nationally. Households average just 1.76 people, and 20.9% consist of one person living alone — a signature of areas with a lot of studio and one-bedroom stock.

Getting to work takes 46.0 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 94.9% of workers.

Beyond addressing mail, 02802 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 02802 offers a compact profile of Albion: 531 residents, a median household income of $125,522, 52.3% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 0.0%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 02802 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Albion may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.