ZIP 11780 vs ZIP 11790

This side-by-side compares ZIP 11780 (Saint James, NY) and ZIP 11790 (Stony Brook, NY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 11780 has a population of 15,524 at 519 people per square mile, while ZIP 11790 has 18,511 at 998 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 11780 reports a median household income of $144,577 against $171,133 in ZIP 11790, with per-capita income of $75,677 vs $46,659. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 52.1% in 11780 and 69.9% in 11790. Poverty rate reads 3.2% vs 6.9%, and unemployment 3.1% vs 6.4% — 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 $723,200 in 11780 versus $624,000 in 11790, with median rent of $2,316 and $3,501 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 87.4% vs 90.5%. 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.