86429Bullhead City, Arizona

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 86429.

43out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 3% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity6165th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured13
GrowthTop 20% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured67
Housing affordability4830th of 6,685 ZIP areas measured64
Climate6152nd of 6,789 ZIP areas measured58
Physical resilience5652nd of 6,709 ZIP areas measured21
AccessTop 32% of 6,791 ZIP areas measured97
Economic stability6135th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured31
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 7.4% and the Opportunity signal places 86429 in the bottom 1%.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 359 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 34% on the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, wildfire and heat wave.

At a glance

Population
8,619
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,906
Bottom 28% nationally
Density
31/sq mi
274.8 sq mi of land
Median age
60.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Bullhead City
Arizona
Metro area
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
Nearest major airport
IFP
10 mi · Laughlin/Bullhead Intl
Median home value
$349,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.4% is lower than 2% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 5.5% over the past year, to 14,925 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,715$58,906Bottom 28%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$20,188$50,251Top 19%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.2%Bottom 48%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.3 minBottom 42%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.3%Bottom 32%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,925Bottom 10%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.0%Bottom 10%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-5.5%Bottom 2%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force16,110Bottom 11%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation44.2%Bottom 12%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$54,860Bottom 6%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$44,230Bottom 5%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.9%Top 1%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate7.4%Top 2%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202459k47k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,906 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Cashiers2,650$32,510
General and Operations Managers2,170$74,050
Retail Salespersons2,130$34,610
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,960$31,100
Stockers and Order Fillers1,350$36,390
Office Clerks, General1,320$41,740

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Bullhead City, AZ, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 13.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sunrise ElementaryBullhead City School District (4378)414
Mohave Accelerated Elementary School East · charterMohave Accelerated Elementary School Inc. (85516)11013.8

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Arizona’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,058 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.9 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
21.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,058
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$349,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.94Top 10%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.0%Bottom 21%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3825,664Top 26%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$91$1,058Top 46%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,797$349,900Top 26%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.6%Top 27%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate21.8%Top 24%of 33,0282024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
67/ 100
Top 20% of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 8.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
359
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.4
Top 16% nationally
Year over year
+34%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Bullhead City, AZ, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 99°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 19, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station KINGMAN MOHAVE CO AP, 30.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index30.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation8.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high99°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index19.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
19
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
30
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

21 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and heat wave.

WildfireHigh
Heat waveModerate
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Volcanic activityModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, strong wind, ice storm, avalanche, landslide, hail, drought, tornado, cold wave.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Mohave County records 4.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 27.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 39.3 per 100,000 residents in Mohave County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
39.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
33.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Mohave County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 86429 rather than 86429 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Laughlin/Bullhead IntlIFP10 mi8,501 ft
Lake Havasu CityHII50 mi8,000 ft
Harry Reid IntlLAS67 mi14,835 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
43
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

86429 vs Bullhead City

How this ZIP area compares with Bullhead City as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

86429
Bullhead City
Median household income
$58,906
vs
$50,556
Per capita income
$50,251
vs
$35,822
Population density
31/sq mi
vs
716/sq mi
Median home value
$349,900
vs
$211,500
Median gross rent
$1,058
vs
$1,079
Homeownership rate
65.0%
vs
69.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.3%
vs
15.2%
Poverty rate
10.2%
vs
18.7%
Median age
60.2
vs
56.0

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.