ZIP 49838 vs ZIP 49820

This side-by-side compares ZIP 49838 (Gould City, MI) and ZIP 49820 (Curtis, MI) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 49838 has a population of 504 at 1 people per square mile, while ZIP 49820 has 382 at 7 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 49838 reports a median household income of $40,000 against — in ZIP 49820, with per-capita income of $29,486 vs $73,361. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 9.0% in 49838 and 32.1% in 49820. Poverty rate reads 16.0% vs 9.9%, and unemployment 24.1% 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 $180,400 in 49838 versus $159,600 in 49820, with median rent of — and $342 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 93.4% vs 85.6%. 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.