ZIP 57638 vs ZIP 57620

This side-by-side compares ZIP 57638 (Lemmon, SD) and ZIP 57620 (Bison, SD) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both, no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 57638 has a population of 1,921 at 1 people per square mile, while ZIP 57620 has 515 at 1 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 57638 reports a median household income of $58,533 against $90,500 in ZIP 57620, with per-capita income of $31,681 vs $43,062. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 25.1% in 57638 and 24.0% in 57620. Poverty rate reads 18.0% vs 6.7%, and unemployment 8.0% 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 $101,100 in 57638 versus $106,300 in 57620, with median rent of $663 and $932 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 78.9% vs 79.1%. 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.