ZIP 50434 vs ZIP 50446

This side-by-side compares ZIP 50434 (Fertile, IA) and ZIP 50446 (Joice, IA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 50434 has a population of 498 at 21 people per square mile, while ZIP 50446 has 548 at 5 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 50434 reports a median household income of — against $107,000 in ZIP 50446, with per-capita income of $33,396 vs $50,183. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 18.4% in 50434 and 28.6% in 50446. Poverty rate reads 27.0% vs 3.6%, and unemployment 0.0% 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 — in 50434 versus $154,200 in 50446, with median rent of $858 and $800 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 93.1% vs 88.7%. 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.