ZIP 05403 vs ZIP 05405

This side-by-side compares ZIP 05403 (South Burlington, VT) and ZIP 05405 (Burlington, VT) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 05403 has a population of 17,593 at 414 people per square mile, while ZIP 05405 has 4,406 at 7,308 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 05403 reports a median household income of $105,616 against — in ZIP 05405, with per-capita income of $59,614 vs $4,558. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 67.3% in 05403 and 100.0% in 05405. Poverty rate reads 7.3% vs 100.0%, and unemployment 3.9% vs 5.4% — 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 $442,400 in 05403 versus — in 05405, with median rent of $1,787 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 61.4% vs 100.0%. 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.