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ZIP Code97837

Hereford, OR

Baker County · Oregon · United States
Home to 71 people across 141.181 square miles.

PacificOwner-majority11 ZIPs in county

At a glance

97837 by the numbers

Every figure below comes from the 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the Census Gazetteer, or is computed from those. Margins of error are shown where they matter.

Population
71
±37 · bottom 10% nationally
Median household income
US median $70,109 ·
Median home value
US median $207,500 ·
Median age
61.2
US median 42 years
Population density
1/mi²
bottom 10% most dense
Land area
141.181 mi²
plus 0.194 mi² water

Location

Where 97837 is

44.519548, -118.061902 · Census ZCTA internal pointOpen larger map →
Coordinates44.519548, -118.061902
Time zoneAmerica/Los_Angeles
CountyBaker County
StateOregon (OR)
Land area141.181 mi²
Coordinate sourceCensus ZCTA internal point

Local time

America/Los_Angeles

—:—:—

Current weather

Live from the National Weather Service

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Distance to major cities

Straight-line, computed from coordinates

Seattle, WA295.5 mi
San Francisco, CA518.0 mi
Los Angeles, CA723.3 mi
Denver, CO745.6 mi

People

Who lives in 97837

71 residents in 50 households, averaging 1.42 people per household. The largest age group is 55-64 at 35.2% of residents, and 78.0% of households are a single person living alone.

Age distribution

Share of residents by age band

Under 188.5%
18-249.9%
25-345.6%
35-440.0%
45-5418.3%
55-6435.2%
65+22.5%

Households

Composition and size

Total households50
Average household size1.42
Family households18.0%
Living alone78.0%
Median age61.2 years
Households with internet38.0%

Race & ethnicity

Census race categories. Hispanic or Latino origin is asked separately and overlaps these groups.

White85.9%
Native American11.3%
Other2.8%

Income & work

What people earn in 97837

Income data is suppressed for this ZIP code.

Compared to the US

This ZIP against the national median

Median household income
Median household income±—
Per capita income$19,563
Poverty rate35.2%
Unemployment rate14.8%
Labor force participation39.1%

Household income distribution

Share of households in each bracket

<$25k74.0%
$25-50k8.0%
$50-75k0.0%
$75-100k8.0%
$100-150k6.0%
$150-200k4.0%
$200k+0.0%

Educational attainment among residents 25 and older: 3.4% hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 96.6% finished high school.

Housing

Homes and rent in 97837

Housing cost data is suppressed for this ZIP code.

Costs

Typical values

Median home value
Median gross rent—/mo
Median year built1938
Housing units67
Vacancy rate25.4%

Own vs. rent

Of 50 occupied units

Owner-occupied76.0%
Renter-occupied24.0%
Owner households38
Renter households12

Building types

Units by structure size

Single family98.5%
20+ units1.5%

Getting to work

How 97837 commutes

78.3% of workers drove alone, and the average one-way trip takes 26.4 minutes. 21.7% work from home.

Mode of transport

Workers 16 and older

Drove alone78.3%
Worked from home21.7%

Travel time

Mean commute 26.4 minutes

<10 min11.1%
10-1938.9%
20-2922.2%
30-440.0%
45-5927.8%
60+0.0%

Overview

Understanding ZIP code 97837

ZIP code 97837 is assigned to Hereford, OR, and falls within Baker 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 71 people live inside it.

At 1 residents per square mile spread over 141.181 square miles, 97837 reads as a rural area. It is a sparsely populated postal code, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Living here

What life in Hereford looks like

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 98.5% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1938, making the housing here largely pre-war. The vacancy rate of 25.4% is high, which in many places reflects seasonal or second-home use rather than abandonment.

The population skews considerably older than the national median, with a median age of 61.2 against 42 nationally. Households average just 1.42 people, and 78.0% consist of one person living alone — a signature of areas with a lot of studio and one-bedroom stock.

Getting to work takes 26.4 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 78.3% of workers, while 21.7% work from home. Commute patterns are one of the better proxies for how a place actually functions day to day.

Where to stay

Where to stay in Hereford, OR

97837 covers a rural area, and accommodation within the postal code itself is likely to be sparse — perhaps a country inn, a lodge or a vacation rental rather than a conventional hotel. Widening the search radius is usually the practical approach, and it also opens up more availability at short notice.

For reference, Seattle, WA is about 295.5 miles away in a straight line, which is worth factoring in if you are comparing a stay here against one closer to the city centre.

Availability and pricing change constantly, so the live search below will give you a more accurate picture than any figure we could publish here. It opens results for this area on Booking.com.

Book a Hotel →

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Practical uses

What ZIP code 97837 is used for

Beyond addressing mail, 97837 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, 97837 offers a compact profile of Hereford: 71 residents, 3.4% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 14.8%. 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. 97837 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Hereford 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.

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Questions

Common questions about 97837

What city is ZIP code 97837 in?
97837 serves Hereford, Oregon, in Baker County, United States.
What is the population of 97837?
About 71 people live in ZIP code 97837, according to the US Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. The margin of error on that figure is ±37. That works out to roughly 1 people per square mile.
Is 97837 a good place to live?
That depends on what you're looking for, but here are the facts: 3.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate is 14.8%, and the median age is 61.2. The average commute is 26.4 minutes. We publish the numbers and let you weigh them.
What time zone is 97837 in?
97837 observes Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles). This zone observes daylight saving time.
How big is ZIP code 97837?
ZIP code 97837 covers 141.181 square miles of land plus 0.194 square miles of water, per the US Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer files.
Is 97837 urban, suburban or rural?
By population density, 97837 reads as a rural area. It holds 1 people per square mile across 141.181 square miles of land. For reference, densities above 10,000 per square mile generally indicate an urban core, 1,000–3,000 is typically suburban, and under 200 is rural. These are rules of thumb rather than official designations — the Census Bureau classifies urban and rural areas by census block, not by ZIP code.
What is the commute like from 97837?
The average one-way commute from 97837 takes about 26.4 minutes. The most common way to travel is drove alone, used by 78.3% of workers aged 16 and over. Commute figures cover people who were employed and working outside the home during the survey period.
How many people work in 97837?
About 23 residents of 97837 are employed. Labor force participation stands at 39.1% and the unemployment rate is 14.8%. Note this counts residents by where they live, not by where they work — a ZIP with many offices can have far more jobs than employed residents.
Where should I stay when visiting 97837?
Accommodation in and around Hereford, OR ranges with the character of the area. See the 'Where to stay' section on this page for local context, and use the live search there for current availability and pricing.
Does 97837 cover more than one city or county?
This page lists Hereford as the primary place and Baker County as the county. ZIP codes follow mail delivery routes rather than municipal or county lines, so a single code can straddle boundaries, and USPS also recognises alternate acceptable city names for many codes. If you need the definitive answer for a specific street address, the USPS ZIP Code Lookup is the authority.
Can ZIP code 97837 change?
Yes. USPS adjusts ZIP codes as delivery volumes shift — codes are occasionally split, merged, retired or newly created, and boundaries move more often than most people assume. The Census Bureau's ZCTA definitions, which underpin the demographic figures on this page, are redrawn only once a decade, so the two can drift apart between censuses.

Methodology

Where this data comes from

  • Postal geography — GeoNames open postal code database (CC BY 4.0), cross-checked against the US Census Gazetteer.
  • Demographics, income, housing, commute — US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates, ZIP Code Tabulation Area 97837. Tables B01001, B01002, B01003, B02001, B03003, B08301, B08303, B11001, B15003, B17001, B19001, B19013, B19301, B23025, B25002, B25003, B25024, B25035, B25064, B25077, B28002.
  • Land and water area — US Census Bureau 2023 Gazetteer Files.
  • Weather — NOAA National Weather Service, fetched live in your browser.
  • Map — OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
On accuracy. ACS figures are survey estimates, not counts. The margin of error shown alongside the population figure means the true value has a 90% chance of falling in that range. For small ZIP codes the error can be large relative to the estimate — treat the direction as more reliable than the exact number. This page reports data for ZCTA 97837, the Census approximation of the USPS delivery area.