ZIP 17946 vs ZIP 17949

This side-by-side compares ZIP 17946 (Lost Creek, PA) and ZIP 17949 (Mahanoy Plane, PA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 17946 has a population of 263 at 53 people per square mile, while ZIP 17949 has 263 at 1,009 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 17946 reports a median household income of $125,100 against $54,250 in ZIP 17949, with per-capita income of $42,881 vs $30,272. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 0.0% in 17946 and 6.0% in 17949. Poverty rate reads 4.3% vs 37.1%, and unemployment 0.0% vs 0.0% — 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 $164,300 in 17946 versus $35,600 in 17949, with median rent of — and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 100.0% vs 76.5%. 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.