ZIP 84118 vs ZIP 84121

This side-by-side compares ZIP 84118 (Salt Lake City, UT) and ZIP 84121 (Salt Lake City, UT) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 84118 has a population of 68,295 at 1,539 people per square mile, while ZIP 84121 has 41,702 at 250 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 84118 reports a median household income of $90,562 against $115,515 in ZIP 84121, with per-capita income of $29,683 vs $59,542. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 14.1% in 84118 and 53.2% in 84121. Poverty rate reads 7.0% vs 7.2%, and unemployment 6.0% vs 2.9% — 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 $389,700 in 84118 versus $659,900 in 84121, with median rent of $1,768 and $1,774 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 84.3% vs 74.9%. 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.