46516Elkhart, Indiana

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 46516.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 34% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3637th of 6,210 published ZIP areas51
Schools3317th of 4,422 published ZIP areas32
GrowthTop 20% of 5,428 published ZIP areas67
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 6,685 published ZIP areas92
Climate5389th of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 17% of 6,709 published ZIP areas84
Access3500th of 6,791 published ZIP areas92
Economic stability5190th of 6,742 published ZIP areas43
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 313 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 114% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 46516 in the top 17% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
31,871
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,492
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
1,821/sq mi
17.5 sq mi of land
Median age
35.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Elkhart
Indiana
Metro area
Elkhart-Goshen, IN
Nearest major airport
SBN
19 mi · South Bend Intl
Median home value
$153,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 65% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.3% over the past year, to 24,585 employed residents.

Median household income of $56,492 is below 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,329$56,492Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,274$29,779Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.5%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.8 minBottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.8%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,585Bottom 25%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.5%Bottom 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.3%Top 24%June 2026
Labor force25,630Bottom 25%June 2026
Labor force participation64.5%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,180Bottom 13%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,070Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202456k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,492 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 — Elkhart-Goshen, IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators18,960$46,960
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand2,980$40,820
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,710$28,300
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products2,370$75,220
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers2,300$65,150
Retail Salespersons2,270$33,360

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 Elkhart, IN, the city containing this ZIP code.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 24% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

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

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.3%
Bottom 35% in Indiana
Reading proficiency
24.3%
Bottom 24% in Indiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Concord East Side Elementary SchConcord Community Schools54517.043%39%
Roosevelt STEAM AcademyElkhart Community Schools53116.610%10%
Riverview Elementary SchoolElkhart Community Schools43916.342%31%
Concord Ox Bow Elementary SchoolConcord Community Schools43115.435%32%
Mary Beck Elementary SchoolElkhart Community Schools38516.010%7%
Excel Center - Elkhart · charterExcel Center - Elkhart26023.6

50.5% 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 Indiana’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 $1,016 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,016
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$153,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.72Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.7%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±64614,391Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$1,016Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,053$153,400Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.6%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.9%Top 38%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
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.

84% 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 5.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
313
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.8
Top 26% nationally
Year over year
+114%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
83.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Elkhart, IN, 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 83°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 45, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GOSHEN MUNI AP, 13.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index62.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation34.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index45.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
45
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
62
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

84 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, cold wave, inland flooding, winter weather, lightning, ice storm, drought, hurricane, landslide, wildfire.

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.

Elkhart County records 4.3 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 14.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.2 per 100,000 residents in Elkhart County.

Homicide
4.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.5
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 Elkhart 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 46516 rather than 46516 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
South Bend IntlSBN19 mi8,412 ft
Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg FldBTL56 mi10,004 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY76 mi8,859 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
65
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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
2019-20 school year; 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.

46516 vs Elkhart

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

46516
Elkhart
Median household income
$56,492
vs
$51,028
Per capita income
$29,779
vs
$28,189
Population density
1,821/sq mi
vs
1,911/sq mi
Median home value
$153,400
vs
$139,500
Median gross rent
$1,016
vs
$998
Homeownership rate
62.7%
vs
53.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.8%
vs
17.7%
Poverty rate
16.5%
vs
18.2%
Median age
35.7
vs
35.0

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.