ZIP 56256

What ZIP 56256 actually tells you, and what it doesn't

The 56256 ZIP Code Tabulation Area has a population of 2,358 and a median household income of $56,728. Against the other tabulation areas in this dataset, it places as follows.

Housing is cheap here relative to local earnings. A home at the median costs about 1.9 years of a median household's gross income, which puts 56256 in the least expensive quarter of the 29,491 tabulation areas that report both figures. Areas in this range are usually either far from a major job centre or carrying housing stock that local wages have caught up with.

Median rent works out to about 19% of median household income, above the midpoint for reporting areas though still short of the 30% cost-burden line. Note that this compares two medians, not the same households: renters here typically earn less than the ZCTA-wide median, so their real share is higher.

At a median age of 55.5, 56256 falls in the oldest quarter of reporting areas. Retirement destinations and long-settled rural areas cluster here, and in both the labour-force measures below cover a smaller share of residents than they would in a younger area.

ZCTAs approximate USPS ZIP codes rather than matching them, and these are 5-year ACS estimates, so they trail current conditions.