ZIP 60959 vs ZIP 60946

This side-by-side compares ZIP 60959 (Piper City, IL) and ZIP 60946 (Kempton, IL) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 60959 has a population of 1,082 at 8 people per square mile, while ZIP 60946 has 426 at 4 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 60959 reports a median household income of $54,583 against $74,853 in ZIP 60946, with per-capita income of $35,474 vs $38,948. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 9.3% in 60959 and 18.6% in 60946. Poverty rate reads 10.8% vs 8.5%, and unemployment 11.4% vs 10.9% — 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 $94,800 in 60959 versus $69,000 in 60946, with median rent of $763 and $1,107 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 68.7% vs 78.1%. 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.