ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 98944

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

Data updated 2026-08-24

245
Property rate /100K (county)
25,176
Population (ZIP)
33
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 98944 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 98944 sits within Benton 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: 33 violent incidents and 245 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.

ZIP 98944 carries a Census-reported population of 25,176, ranking #5 of 11 ZIPs in Benton County, spread across 544.64 square miles (about 46 people per square mile). For a full breakdown of Benton County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Benton County crime page linked below.

ZIP 98944 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Benton County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 98944 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
$57,928
Median age
27.0 years
Owner-occupied homes
64%
Occupied homes
6,721

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 98944?

Within the participating-agency records for Benton County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 91% below and property crime is 86% 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 98944. 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.

98944 is comparatively spread out at about 46 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.

Benton County UCR book ZIP 98944 inherits

ZIP 98944 itself is about 46 people per Census sq mi across 544.6 sq mi (25,176 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 98944 accounts for roughly 12.2% of the county reporting population (25,176 of 206,873).

Benton County leans on larceny-theft at 48% of reported offenses (mix index 3,192). ZIP 98944 has no separate FBI offense book.

Benton County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts -16% vs 2023; property counts +23% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Benton 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 98944

Similar county violent rate (~33/100K)

Similar Census population (~25,176)

County detail: Benton 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.