ZIP 18602 vs ZIP 18702

This side-by-side compares ZIP 18602 (Bear Creek, PA) and ZIP 18702 (Wilkes Barre, PA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 18602 has a population of 257 at 51 people per square mile, while ZIP 18702 has 40,295 at 224 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 18602 reports a median household income of $160,962 against $56,378 in ZIP 18702, with per-capita income of $56,296 vs $31,728. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 51.9% in 18602 and 23.6% in 18702. Poverty rate reads 2.5% vs 18.7%, and unemployment 0.8% vs 8.2% — 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 $412,700 in 18602 versus $131,900 in 18702, with median rent of — and $1,011 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 99.1% vs 59.5%. 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.