ZIP 52641 vs ZIP 52649

This side-by-side compares ZIP 52641 (Mount Pleasant, IA) and ZIP 52649 (Salem, IA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 52641 has a population of 12,357 at 23 people per square mile, while ZIP 52649 has 887 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 52641 reports a median household income of $64,512 against $91,071 in ZIP 52649, with per-capita income of $32,137 vs $44,215. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 23.5% in 52641 and 29.6% in 52649. Poverty rate reads 13.8% vs 7.9%, and unemployment 1.4% vs 2.0% — 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 $171,400 in 52641 versus $245,300 in 52649, with median rent of $834 and $850 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 67.7% vs 91.2%. 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.