ZIP 25177 vs ZIP 25202

This side-by-side compares ZIP 25177 (Saint Albans, WV) and ZIP 25202 (Tornado, WV) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 25177 has a population of 24,084 at 310 people per square mile, while ZIP 25202 has 1,370 at 46 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 25177 reports a median household income of $55,046 against $96,328 in ZIP 25202, with per-capita income of $31,572 vs $32,544. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 21.4% in 25177 and 25.1% in 25202. Poverty rate reads 21.3% vs 9.2%, and unemployment 4.8% 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 $139,900 in 25177 versus $198,600 in 25202, with median rent of $907 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 72.4% vs 94.1%. 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.