ZIP 77498 vs ZIP 77083

This side-by-side compares ZIP 77498 (Sugar Land, TX) and ZIP 77083 (Houston, TX) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 77498 has a population of 49,906 at 1,242 people per square mile, while ZIP 77083 has 70,837 at 2,651 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 77498 reports a median household income of $100,950 against $64,418 in ZIP 77083, with per-capita income of $41,186 vs $27,445. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 45.1% in 77498 and 25.5% in 77083. Poverty rate reads 7.8% vs 15.7%, and unemployment 6.8% vs 7.7% — 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 $302,600 in 77498 versus $239,300 in 77083, with median rent of $1,797 and $1,447 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 70.6% vs 64.2%. 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.