80526Fort Collins, Colorado

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 80526.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: climate. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 34% of 6,210 published ZIP areas62
GrowthTop 30% of 5,428 published ZIP areas62
Housing affordability5163rd of 6,685 published ZIP areas60
Physical resilienceTop 36% of 6,709 published ZIP areas69
AccessTop 2% of 6,791 published ZIP areas100
Economic stabilityTop 34% of 6,742 published ZIP areas68
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.6% and median household income $88,686, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 1,614 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 67% on the prior year.

A major airport is 8 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
44,326
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$88,686
Top 28% nationally
Density
1,386/sq mi
32.0 sq mi of land
Median age
34.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Fort Collins
Colorado
Metro area
Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
Nearest major airport
FNL
8 mi · Northern Colorado Rgnl
Median home value
$551,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 83% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 94,568 employed residents.

58% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,446$88,686Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,740$46,463Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.9%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher57.7%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment94,568Top 36%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.2%Bottom 10%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 40%June 2026
Labor force98,103Top 36%June 2026
Labor force participation71.0%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,620Top 39%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,310Top 29%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 17%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202489k74k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $88,686 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 — Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,770$34,850
Retail Salespersons5,400$36,640
Cashiers3,670$35,980
Stockers and Order Fillers2,810$40,280
Waiters and Waitresses2,740$47,360
General and Operations Managers2,510$105,770

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 Fort Collins, CO, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 16.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Rocky Mountain High SchoolPoudre School District R-12,04419.7
Webber Middle SchoolPoudre School District R-172817.8
Bauder Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-142312.8
Blevins Middle SchoolPoudre School District R-136313.0
Lopez Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-136115.7
McGraw Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-134914.0
Johnson Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-134816.6
Olander Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-131014.8
Beattie Elementary SchoolPoudre School District R-130215.9
Axis International Academy · charterState Charter School Institute28816.0
Fort Collins Montessori School · charterPoudre School District R-127823.2

39.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

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 Colorado’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 $1,667 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,667
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$551,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.22Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.0%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±59619,769Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$67$1,667Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,530$551,800Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.6%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.1%Bottom 13%2024 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
62/ 100
Top 30% 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.

71% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 9.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
1,614
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.5
Top 13% nationally
Year over year
+67%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
71.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Fort Collins, CO, the city containing this ZIP code.

Physical risk

69 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are wildfire, tornado and hail.

HailElevated
WildfireHigh
TornadoElevated
EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, landslide, cold wave, avalanche, inland flooding, strong wind, volcanic activity, heat wave, ice storm, drought.

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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Larimer County records 1.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.7 per 100,000 residents in Larimer County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.6
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 Larimer 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 80526 rather than 80526 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

8 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 8 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Northern Colorado RgnlFNL8 mi8,500 ft
Greeley-Weld CountyGXY27 mi10,000 ft
Rocky Mountain MetroBJC42 mi9,000 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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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)
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

80526 vs Fort Collins

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

80526
Fort Collins
Median household income
$88,686
vs
$85,070
Per capita income
$46,463
vs
$47,458
Population density
1,386/sq mi
vs
2,974/sq mi
Median home value
$551,800
vs
$577,900
Median gross rent
$1,667
vs
$1,690
Homeownership rate
57.0%
vs
51.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
57.7%
vs
60.7%
Poverty rate
12.9%
vs
15.8%
Median age
34.1
vs
30.9

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.