ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 98278

Island County, Washington: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.

Data updated 2026-08-24

458
Property rate /100K (county)
2,351
Population (ZIP)
65
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 98278 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 98278 sits within Island 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: 65 violent incidents and 458 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.

With 2,351 residents, ZIP 98278 is among the smaller ZIPs in Island County (#7 of 8 by population), spread across 4.22 square miles (557/sq mi). For a full breakdown of Island County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Island County crime page linked below.

ZIP 98278 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Island County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 98278 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 age
22.2 years
Occupied homes
0

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 98278?

Within the participating-agency records for Island County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 82% below and property crime is 73% 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 98278. 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.

Within the county, 98278 is among the smaller ZIPs by population (#7 of 8). County-wide counts are especially coarse context for a smaller postal area because most of the denominator and reported incidents may sit elsewhere in the county.

Island County UCR book ZIP 98278 inherits

ZIP 98278 itself is about 557 people per Census sq mi across 4.2 sq mi (2,351 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 98278 accounts for roughly 2.7% of the county reporting population (2,351 of 86,857).

Island County leans on larceny-theft at 49% of reported offenses (mix index 3,406). ZIP 98278 has no separate FBI offense book.

Island County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts +14% vs 2023; property counts -14% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Island 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 98278

Similar county violent rate (~65/100K)

Similar Census population (~2,351)

County detail: Island 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.