ZIP 04858 vs ZIP 04859

This side-by-side compares ZIP 04858 (South Thomaston, ME) and ZIP 04859 (Spruce Head, ME) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 04858 has a population of 1,533 at 52 people per square mile, while ZIP 04859 has 724 at 42 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 04858 reports a median household income of $87,059 against $75,341 in ZIP 04859, with per-capita income of $47,373 vs $70,170. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 44.4% in 04858 and 30.2% in 04859. Poverty rate reads 4.2% vs 2.9%, and unemployment 0.0% 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 $341,300 in 04858 versus — in 04859, with median rent of $925 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 92.9% vs 84.5%. 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.