Westerly, RI population, income and ZIP codes

Westerly CDP is a mid-size town in Rhode Island, with 18,528 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #9 of 36 ranked by population — larger than 77% of them. The median age here is 53.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Westerly CDP earn a median of $82,333 a year, 4.8% above the national figure of $78,538 and 12% below the $93,653 median for the 28 Rhode Island cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 6% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Westerly CDP is valued at $400,200, 31.9% above the national figure and 12% above the $358,200 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,243 a month, 11.6% below the national figure, or roughly $14,916 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 18.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 72% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 53.5 puts Westerly CDP well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.