ZIP 03853 vs ZIP 03816

This side-by-side compares ZIP 03853 (Mirror Lake, NH) and ZIP 03816 (Center Tuftonboro, NH) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 03853 has a population of 602 at 29 people per square mile, while ZIP 03816 has 1,368 at 18 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 03853 reports a median household income of $103,900 against $88,971 in ZIP 03816, with per-capita income of $60,940 vs $38,069. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 49.1% in 03853 and 38.8% in 03816. Poverty rate reads 6.1% vs 3.8%, and unemployment 5.6% vs 2.7% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $572,300 in 03853 versus $426,700 in 03816, with median rent of $1,363 and $946 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 85.9% vs 94.7%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.