ZIP code 98503

ZIP 98503 is a small city in Thurston County, Washington, with 42,189 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #36 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 94% of them. The median age here is 40.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 ZIP 98503 earn a median of $87,515 a year, 11.4% above 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 9.8% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98503 is valued at $407,700, 34.4% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,673 a month, 19% above the national figure, or roughly $20,076 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 58.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.

ZIP 98503 is tabulated inside Thurston County, Washington, one of 14 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 605 across Washington. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 98503 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98503 reports a median household income of $87,515, 6% below the $92,965 county median, and 8% above the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $407,700, 5% below the county figure and 3% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,673 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Washington charges 6.5% statewide, and local governments overlapping 98503 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

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 98503 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.