ZIP code 02542

ZIP 02542 is a very small community in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, with 854 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #475 of 539 ranked by population — larger than 11% of them. The median age here is 26 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in ZIP 02542 earn a median of $55,000 a year, 30% below the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 0.8% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 02542 is valued at not published, while median gross rent runs $1,830 a month, 30.2% above the national figure, or roughly $21,960 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 39.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. 0% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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 26 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address. With 854 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare ZIP 02542 against its county rather than against national figures.

The Census withheld home value for ZIP 02542 because the sample was too thin to publish at this geography. Those values were suppressed at the source, not lost in our dataset, and we do not model a replacement. Everything else on this page comes straight from the ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year tables.

ZIP 02542 is tabulated inside Barnstable County, Massachusetts, one of 47 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 539 across Massachusetts. Fewer than 2,500 people are counted here, so the ZIP behaves like a village delivery route rather than a neighbourhood. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 02542 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 02542 reports a median household income of $55,000, 44% below the $98,798 county median, and 49% below the $107,198 typical MA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of not published. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,830 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Massachusetts charges 6.25% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 02542.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 02542 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.