Newport News, VA

ZIP code 23602 is assigned to Newport News, VA, and falls within Newport News (city) 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 42,699 people live inside it.

At 3,247 residents per square mile spread over 13.149 square miles, 23602 reads as a densely built-up area. It is a populous 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 track close to the national picture. The median of $72,487 puts 23602 near the middle of the pack, ahead of 54% 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 23602 costs close to the national median. A typical home is valued at $270,200 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $1,446 a month. The split between owning and renting is fairly even at 51.6% owner-occupied, which tends to indicate a mix of housing types rather than one dominant form.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 60.4% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1985, making the housing here from the later twentieth century. At 4.6%, vacancy is low — housing here is tightly held.

The population skews younger than the country as a whole, with a median age of 34.9 against 42 nationally. The average household holds 2.37 people, and 59.7% are family households.

Getting to work takes 26.7 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 78.4% of workers.

Beyond addressing mail, 23602 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, 23602 offers a compact profile of Newport News: 42,699 residents, a median household income of $72,487, 36.2% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 5.0%. 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. 23602 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Newport News 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.