ZIP 51649 vs ZIP 51645

This side-by-side compares ZIP 51649 (Randolph, IA) and ZIP 51645 (Imogene, IA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 51649 has a population of 328 at 3 people per square mile, while ZIP 51645 has 262 at 2 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 51649 reports a median household income of $58,333 against $217,898 in ZIP 51645, with per-capita income of $41,077 vs $56,899. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 32.0% in 51649 and 51.2% in 51645. Poverty rate reads 4.9% vs 0.5%, and unemployment 3.4% 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 $101,400 in 51649 versus — in 51645, with median rent of $1,156 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 82.0% vs 98.4%. 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.