ZIP 17243 vs ZIP 17213

This side-by-side compares ZIP 17243 (Orbisonia, PA) and ZIP 17213 (Blairs Mills, PA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 17243 has a population of 1,329 at 9 people per square mile, while ZIP 17213 has 639 at 6 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 17243 reports a median household income of $42,381 against $76,506 in ZIP 17213, with per-capita income of $26,774 vs $42,841. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 23.2% in 17243 and 15.4% in 17213. Poverty rate reads 15.0% vs 2.3%, and unemployment 1.6% vs 1.1% — 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 $155,400 in 17243 versus $195,200 in 17213, with median rent of $760 and $638 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 74.7% vs 88.4%. 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.