ZIP 80440 vs ZIP 80420

This side-by-side compares ZIP 80440 (Fairplay, CO) and ZIP 80420 (Alma, CO) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both, no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 80440 has a population of 2,422 at 4 people per square mile, while ZIP 80420 has 933 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 80440 reports a median household income of $116,143 against $86,705 in ZIP 80420, with per-capita income of $72,442 vs $68,745. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 45.6% in 80440 and 68.9% in 80420. Poverty rate reads 4.5% vs 8.3%, and unemployment 5.8% vs 0.1% - 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 $469,200 in 80440 versus $616,000 in 80420, with median rent of $2,166 and $2,295 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 75.4% vs 59.8%. 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.