Every ZIP code in the United States, with weather, radar, trivia and the numbers behind it. Five digits since 1963!

ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan. The codes went live on July 1, 1963.The lowest ZIP code is 00501 — the IRS in Holtsville, New York.The highest ZIP code is 99950, in Ketchikan, Alaska.Type 07734 into a calculator and turn it upside down: hELLO. It is Keansburg, New Jersey.12345 belongs to one company: General Electric in Schenectady, New York.The first digit is a region: 0 is New England and New Jersey, 9 is the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii.Mr. ZIP, the cartoon mailman, was the mascot that sold the idea to America.ZIP+4 arrived in 1983 and can narrow a ZIP down to one side of one block.A ZIP code is a mail route, not a place: plenty of them cross county and even state lines.Play ZIP Hunt: guess the secret ZIP code of the day in six tries.
zipcodes.pro — ZIP/28603

28603

ZIP 28603 is in Hickory, North Carolina, in Catawba County; area code 828; Eastern time. Hickory has 3 ZIP codes; the others are 28601 and 28602.

Type
No street area
Time zone
America/New_York
County
Catawba
Coordinates
35.6799, -81.2872

The Census map gives this ZIP code no delivery area of its own, which usually means it serves post office boxes, a single organization or a post office rather than streets of homes.

This ZIP code has no Census tabulation area of its own. Its point falls inside ZCTA 28658, whose figures describe that area — not this ZIP code.

☼ Live from 28603 — Hickory, NC

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Where 28603 is

This ZIP code has no Census tabulation area, so there is no boundary to draw — the marker is its published point location.

★ Weird and wonderful facts about 28603
  • 🔢 Type 28603 into a pocket calculator and turn it upside down: EOgBZ — not quite a word, sorry.
  • ➕ 28603 is a prime number. It cannot be divided by anything except 1 and itself. Its digits add up to 19, a total 2,454 other ZIP codes share.
  • 💾In binary, the way a computer stores it: 110111110111011
  • 🏠 Its numerical neighbours: 28602 (Hickory, NC, 5 mi away) and 28604 (Banner Elk, NC, 47 mi away).
  • 🔄 Backwards, 28603 becomes 30682, which is not a ZIP code at all.
  • 👥 57 other ZIP codes are made of exactly the same digits (02368, 02638, 02836, 02863, 03268, 03826, …). The farthest-flung twin is 83602 in Banks, ID, 1,921 miles away.
  • 🧭 Farther south than 71% of all ZIP codes, and farther east than 69%.
  • 🎯985 miles east of the geographic center of the Lower 48, near Lebanon, Kansas.
  • 🌏 Dig straight through the Earth from 28603 and you would come out at 35.68°S, 98.71°E — 1,016 miles from Perth, Australia, the nearest big city to that spot.
  • ☀Longest day of the year: 14h 35m of daylight. Shortest: 9h 44m.
🌙 The sky over 28603 today
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🌋 Shake report
  • Checking the USGS…

Source: USGS.

Business and tax activity

Business establishments70This ZIP70
Employees3,932This ZIP3,932
Annual payroll$258,114,000This ZIP$258,114,000

Land area

ZIP codes near 28603

ZIPCityDistance
28658 Newton, NC 4.1 mi
28602 Hickory, NC 5.4 mi
28613 Conover, NC 6.0 mi
28601 Hickory, NC 6.8 mi
28637 Hildebran, NC 7.9 mi
28610 Claremont, NC 8.7 mi
28667 Rhodhiss, NC 10.1 mi
28650 Maiden, NC 10.4 mi
28666 Icard, NC 10.6 mi
28168 Vale, NC 11.7 mi

Find every ZIP code within 10 miles of 28603 →

Questions about this ZIP code

Where is ZIP code 28603?

28603 is in Hickory, North Carolina, in Catawba County, part of the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC metropolitan area. Its published point location is 35.6799, -81.2872.

What county is 28603 in?

28603 lies in Catawba County.

What area code is 28603?

Hickory uses area code 828, from NANPA's telephone records.

What time zone is 28603 in?

28603 uses America/New_York.

What ZIP codes are near 28603?

The closest are 28658 (4.1 mi), 28602 (5.4 mi), 28613 (6 mi), 28601 (6.8 mi) and 28637 (7.9 mi).

Is 28603 a PO Box ZIP code?

Possibly. The Census map gives this ZIP code no delivery area of its own, which usually means it serves post office boxes, a single organization or a post office rather than streets of homes.

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Cite this page

zipcodes.pro. “28603 ZIP Code — Hickory, North Carolina (Catawba County).” Data release 2026-10-12. Retrieved 2026-10-20. https://zipcodes.pro/zip/28603

Machine-readable version of these facts:

curl https://zipcodes.pro/zip/28603.json

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