ZIP 04492 vs ZIP 04668

This side-by-side compares ZIP 04492 (Waite, ME) and ZIP 04668 (Princeton, ME) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 04492 has a population of 166 at 1 people per square mile, while ZIP 04668 has 1,680 at 7 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 04492 reports a median household income of $63,438 against $48,720 in ZIP 04668, with per-capita income of $30,372 vs $27,702. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 11.5% in 04492 and 22.9% in 04668. Poverty rate reads 13.1% vs 28.0%, and unemployment 0.0% vs 9.4% — 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 $78,300 in 04492 versus $117,700 in 04668, with median rent of — and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 100.0% vs 72.4%. 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.