ZIP 71965 vs ZIP 71969

This side-by-side compares ZIP 71965 (Pencil Bluff, AR) and ZIP 71969 (Sims, AR) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 71965 has a population of 315 at 6 people per square mile, while ZIP 71969 has 376 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 71965 reports a median household income of — against $38,224 in ZIP 71969, with per-capita income of $29,266 vs $24,677. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 27.1% in 71965 and 28.7% in 71969. Poverty rate reads 40.3% vs 28.3%, and unemployment 14.0% 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 $144,100 in 71965 versus $159,800 in 71969, with median rent of — and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 82.4% vs 90.8%. 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.