Boston, MA

ZIP code 02111 is assigned to Boston, MA, and falls within Suffolk County. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 8,067 people live inside it.

At 41,158 residents per square mile spread over 0.196 square miles, 02111 reads as a dense urban area. It is a smaller postal code by population, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings track close to the national picture. The median of $70,865 puts 02111 near the middle of the pack, ahead of 51% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Housing in 02111 costs far above the national median. A typical home is valued at $953,400 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $1,994 a month. This is firmly renter territory — 73.1% of occupied homes are rented, a pattern typical of city centres, student areas and neighbourhoods with a lot of apartment stock.

The building stock is dominated by larger apartment buildings of twenty units or more, which account for 71.8% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1986, making the housing here from the later twentieth century. The vacancy rate of 20.3% is high, which in many places reflects seasonal or second-home use rather than abandonment.

The population skews younger than the country as a whole, with a median age of 31.3 against 42 nationally. The average household holds 2.23 people, and 44.0% are family households.

Getting to work takes 21.6 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is walked at 45.2% of workers, while 14.9% take public transit, 45.2% walk, 22.7% work from home. Commute patterns are one of the better proxies for how a place actually functions day to day.

Beyond addressing mail, 02111 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 02111 offers a compact profile of Boston: 8,067 residents, a median household income of $70,865, 56.9% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 6.1%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 02111 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Boston may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.