ZIP 21781 vs ZIP 21733

This side-by-side compares ZIP 21781 (Saint James, MD) and ZIP 21733 (Fairplay, MD) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 21781 has a population of 136 at 207 people per square mile, while ZIP 21733 has 1,163 at 74 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 21781 reports a median household income of — against $109,896 in ZIP 21733, with per-capita income of — vs $42,309. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 0.0% in 21781 and 24.4% in 21733. Poverty rate reads 100.0% vs 3.4%, and unemployment 100.0% 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 — in 21781 versus $291,800 in 21733, with median rent of — and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is — vs 82.6%. 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.