ZIP code profile · 2024 county data
ZIP Code 98266
Whatcom County, Washington: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.
Data updated 2026-08-24
- 218
- Property rate /100K (county)
- 3,983
- Population (ZIP)
- 50
- Violent rate /100K (county)
Is ZIP code 98266 safe? Honest data snapshot
ZIP code 98266 sits within Whatcom County, WA, a county whose reported crime runs below the national average (see the county-level FBI figures below, not a ZIP-specific calculation).
Reported crime here runs well below the national average: 50 violent incidents and 218 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.
ZIP 98266 carries a Census-reported population of 3,983, ranking #8 of 16 ZIPs in Whatcom County, spread across 50.55 square miles (about 79 people per square mile). For a full breakdown of Whatcom County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Whatcom County crime page linked below.
ZIP 98266 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Whatcom County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.
ZIP 98266 Census context
These are ZIP/ZCTA demographic estimates, separate from the county-level FBI proxy above. They describe the local settlement, not a crime rate.
- Median household income
- $50,980
- Median age
- 41.7 years
- Owner-occupied homes
- 71%
- Occupied homes
- 1,526
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 5-year ZCTA estimates (income, age, and occupied housing tenure).
How useful is the county proxy for ZIP 98266?
Within the participating-agency records for Whatcom County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 86% below and property crime is 87% below. The two submitted measures point in the same direction, but they do not establish complete county coverage or turn the result into a ZIP-level rating for 98266. Both comparisons use the same 2024 county reporting population and FBI-submitted counts, so the two directions are internally comparable for this release, not evidence about a different year.
98266 is comparatively spread out at about 79 people per square mile. That settlement pattern may differ sharply from the county's population centers, another reason to use the county rates as regional context rather than a local estimate.
Whatcom County UCR book ZIP 98266 inherits
ZIP 98266 itself is about 79 people per Census sq mi across 50.6 sq mi (3,983 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.
ZIP 98266 is about 1.8% of the county reporting population (3,983 of 226,847), so most of the denominator and submitted incidents sit outside this postal code.
Whatcom County leans on larceny-theft at 48% of reported offenses (mix index 3,224). ZIP 98266 has no separate FBI offense book.
Whatcom County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts -15% vs 2023; property counts -19% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.
Whatcom County offense mix (2024)
Mix index is HHI × 10,000 on county offense-type shares. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero; still county-agency data, not a ZIP-native FBI table.
Nationwide peers for ZIP 98266
Similar county violent rate (~50/100K)
- ZIP 38469, TN · 49.8/100K · Lawrence County
- ZIP 52162, IA · 49.8/100K · Allamakee County
- ZIP 69138, NE · 49.8/100K · Dawson County
- ZIP 56653, MN · 49.7/100K · Koochiching County
Similar Census population (~3,983)
- ZIP 49435, MI · 3,983 pop · Δ0
- ZIP 54893, WI · 3,983 pop · Δ0
- ZIP 70719, LA · 3,983 pop · Δ0
- ZIP 70819, LA · 3,983 pop · Δ0
County detail: Whatcom County · State atlas: Washington
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ZIP population, land area, 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, ACS 5-year estimates) and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10 (county-level crime, attributed via ZIP-to-county crosswalk).
Verify with Census.gov Geography and FBI.gov UCR.
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page combines Census ZIP-level figures with a ZIP-to-county crosswalk to attribute FBI UCR crime data honestly, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.