ZIP 01537 vs ZIP 01542

This side-by-side compares ZIP 01537 (North Oxford, MA) and ZIP 01542 (Rochdale, MA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 01537 has a population of 2,248 at 124 people per square mile, while ZIP 01542 has 2,202 at 211 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 01537 reports a median household income of $102,956 against $96,111 in ZIP 01542, with per-capita income of $39,495 vs $48,146. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 30.1% in 01537 and 26.4% in 01542. Poverty rate reads 7.3% vs 2.3%, and unemployment 7.4% vs 0.0% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $353,500 in 01537 versus $405,100 in 01542, with median rent of $1,138 and $1,474 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 77.7% vs 84.8%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.