ZIP 98043 vs ZIP 98155

This side-by-side compares ZIP 98043 (Mountlake Terrace, WA) and ZIP 98155 (Seattle, WA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 98043 has a population of 19,943 at 1,883 people per square mile, while ZIP 98155 has 32,778 at 1,675 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 98043 reports a median household income of $107,687 against $131,540 in ZIP 98155, with per-capita income of $59,449 vs $67,259. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 42.9% in 98043 and 56.5% in 98155. Poverty rate reads 7.0% vs 6.1%, and unemployment 4.2% vs 4.8% — 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 $667,100 in 98043 versus $816,400 in 98155, with median rent of $2,004 and $2,127 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 56.8% vs 70.2%. 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.