ZIP 40209 vs ZIP 40217

This side-by-side compares ZIP 40209 (Louisville, KY) and ZIP 40217 (Louisville, KY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 40209 has a population of 360 at 52 people per square mile, while ZIP 40217 has 12,507 at 2,010 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 40209 reports a median household income of — against $69,114 in ZIP 40217, with per-capita income of $21,303 vs $56,978. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 14.7% in 40209 and 52.0% in 40217. Poverty rate reads 52.4% vs 14.4%, and unemployment 28.3% vs 3.6% — 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 $127,200 in 40209 versus $233,800 in 40217, with median rent of $984 and $1,175 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 48.2% vs 58.7%. 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.