ZIP 40461 vs ZIP 40404

This side-by-side compares ZIP 40461 (Paint Lick, KY) and ZIP 40404 (Berea, KY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 40461 has a population of 3,121 at 24 people per square mile, while ZIP 40404 has 643 at 1,960 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 40461 reports a median household income of $71,212 against — in ZIP 40404, with per-capita income of $35,959 vs $5,081. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 21.9% in 40461 and 0.0% in 40404. Poverty rate reads 13.8% vs 100.0%, and unemployment 4.5% vs 6.1% — 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 $201,800 in 40461 versus — in 40404, with median rent of $786 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 80.9% vs 0.0%. 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.