ZIP 38463 vs ZIP 35634

This side-by-side compares ZIP 38463 (Iron City, TN) and ZIP 35634 (Florence, AL) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both, no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 38463 has a population of 2,817 at 10 people per square mile, while ZIP 35634 has 9,711 at 61 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 38463 reports a median household income of $58,059 against $71,452 in ZIP 35634, with per-capita income of $29,888 vs $43,126. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 12.1% in 38463 and 28.9% in 35634. Poverty rate reads 9.7% vs 8.6%, and unemployment 5.0% vs 2.2% - 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 $152,800 in 38463 versus $266,600 in 35634, with median rent of $672 and $914 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 95.4% 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.