ZIP 50527 vs ZIP 50515

This side-by-side compares ZIP 50527 (Curlew, IA) and ZIP 50515 (Ayrshire, IA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 50527 has a population of 223 at 2 people per square mile, while ZIP 50515 has 279 at 3 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 50527 reports a median household income of — against $63,333 in ZIP 50515, with per-capita income of $75,078 vs $38,374. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 31.3% in 50527 and 19.2% in 50515. Poverty rate reads 6.6% vs 13.5%, 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 50527 versus $29,300 in 50515, with median rent of — and $1,313 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 94.4% vs 80.5%. 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.