47905Lafayette, Indiana

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 47905.

72out of 100
Area Score
Top 12% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 15% of 6,210 published ZIP areas74
SchoolsTop 35% of 4,422 published ZIP areas63
GrowthTop 30% of 5,428 published ZIP areas62
Housing affordabilityTop 35% of 6,685 published ZIP areas89
Climate5355th of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 17% of 6,709 published ZIP areas84
Access6003rd of 6,791 published ZIP areas70
Economic stability3623rd of 6,742 published ZIP areas58
The quick read

47905 ranks in the top 15% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $65,861.

Residential permitting has slowed: 694 units authorized over the past twelve months, 18% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 47905 in the top 17% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
42,219
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,861
Bottom 40% nationally
Density
351/sq mi
120.4 sq mi of land
Median age
36.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Lafayette
Indiana
Metro area
Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN
Nearest major airport
IND
55 mi · Indianapolis Intl
Median home value
$235,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 89% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 2.6% over the past year, to 37,601 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 70% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,897$65,861Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,978$36,705Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.6%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.7 minBottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.6%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment37,601Bottom 38%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.7%Top 40%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.6%Top 3%June 2026
Labor force38,913Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force participation65.6%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,210Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,780Bottom 34%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 10%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,861 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 — Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators6,280$63,140
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,260$28,230
Retail Salespersons2,650$30,670
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand2,470$37,310
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners2,100$38,450
Registered Nurses2,080$80,790

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 Lafayette, IN, the city containing this ZIP code.

41% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 44% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
41.2%
Top 35% in Indiana
Reading proficiency
43.5%
Top 33% in Indiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Jefferson High SchoolLafayette School Corporation2,04214.3
Lafayette Tecumseh Jr High SchoolLafayette School Corporation99913.923%33%
Glen Acres Elementary SchoolLafayette School Corporation55017.241%34%
East Tipp Middle SchoolTippecanoe School Corp54718.952%62%
Hershey Elementary SchoolTippecanoe School Corp53816.871%67%
Wyandotte ElementaryTippecanoe School Corp52216.364%52%
Southwestern Middle SchoolTippecanoe School Corp49116.932%32%
Wainwright Middle SchoolTippecanoe School Corp32015.222%47%
Thomas Miller Elementary SchoolLafayette School Corporation31814.527%22%

49.8% 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 $1,107 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,107
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$235,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.58Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.4%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±72418,603Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$31$1,107Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,277$235,600Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.2%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.6%Bottom 20%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.

96% 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 9.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
694
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.8
Top 12% nationally
Year over year
−18%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
95.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Lafayette, 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 84°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAFAYETTE PURDUE UNIV AP, 9.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index56.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
56
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

84 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
Heat waveModerate
EarthquakeElevated

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

Tippecanoe County records 2.5 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 6.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.0 per 100,000 residents in Tippecanoe County.

Homicide
2.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.5
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 Tippecanoe 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 47905 rather than 47905 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 55 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Indianapolis IntlIND55 mi11,200 ft
Terre Haute RgnlHUF73 mi9,021 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY89 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.

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Area Score
72
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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
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.

47905 vs Lafayette

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

47905
Lafayette
Median household income
$65,861
vs
$53,716
Per capita income
$36,705
vs
$30,390
Population density
351/sq mi
vs
2,343/sq mi
Median home value
$235,600
vs
$172,800
Median gross rent
$1,107
vs
$1,079
Homeownership rate
61.4%
vs
46.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
32.6%
vs
27.9%
Poverty rate
14.6%
vs
17.8%
Median age
36.3
vs
33.0

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.