PlainZIP

Data Categories

PlainZIP organizes ~33,000 U.S. ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) into the categories below. Every category draws from the same Census ACS 5-Year Estimates pipeline, pick the view that matches how you think about the data.

States
All 50 U.S. states with ZIP-count, population, and income summaries.
Counties
County-level rollups across every state.
Cities (A-Z)
Alphabetical city directory with ZIP-level coverage.
Time Zones
ZIP codes grouped by IANA time zone.
Rankings
State coverage rankings computed live from the underlying database.
City Affordability Dashboards
Weighted ZIP-level affordability grades.
Neighborhood Scorecards
Income, safety, housing, rent, education, commute, childcare grades.

Jump directly to a state (52 indexed)

Category Methodology

Categories are derived views of a single ZIP-level fact table, they do not pull independent upstream data. Aggregating ZIPs inside a category produces the category total. This means numbers reconcile across categories: summing ZIP populations inside a city equals the city population displayed on city pages.

Rankings use unfiltered raw fields. Affordability dashboards and scorecards compose several raw fields into weighted grades, each composite dimension is computed from its published formula on the respective detail page (Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, Childcare 10%). No proprietary scoring, editorial adjustment, or estimation is applied to raw fields.

For the full pipeline, data dictionary, and source links, see the full methodology page.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023). Source: HUD Fair Market Rents. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. Source: DOL National Database of Childcare Prices.