ZIP 62665 vs ZIP 62621

This side-by-side compares ZIP 62665 (Meredosia, IL) and ZIP 62621 (Bluffs, IL) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 62665 has a population of 1,629 at 15 people per square mile, while ZIP 62621 has 1,171 at 9 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 62665 reports a median household income of $46,528 against $82,500 in ZIP 62621, with per-capita income of $28,763 vs $40,252. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 8.8% in 62665 and 18.3% in 62621. Poverty rate reads 17.9% vs 5.3%, and unemployment 3.5% vs 0.9% — 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 $65,800 in 62665 versus $100,800 in 62621, with median rent of $674 and $704 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 77.4% vs 77.8%. 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.