52401Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 52401.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 45% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4444th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured45
Growth3704th of 5,428 ZIP areas measured39
Housing affordability4881st of 6,685 ZIP areas measured64
Climate6231st of 6,789 ZIP areas measured57
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured85
AccessTop 32% of 6,791 ZIP areas measured97
Economic stability6245th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured29
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 3.4% and the Opportunity signal places 52401 in the bottom 28%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 394 units authorized over the past twelve months, 38% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 52401 in the top 15% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
2,181
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$35,060
Bottom 4% nationally
Density
1,833/sq mi
1.2 sq mi of land
Median age
34.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
Metro area
Cedar Rapids, IA
Nearest major airport
CID
7 mi · The Eastern Iowa
Median home value
$157,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 71,231 employed residents.

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

Median household income of $35,060 is below 96% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$11,295$35,060Bottom 4%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,472$30,890Bottom 30%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate31.8%Top 6%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute16.9 minBottom 6%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.6%Top 30%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment71,231Top 42%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.3%Bottom 17%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 20%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force73,772Top 42%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation57.3%Bottom 38%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,700Bottom 21%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,360Bottom 40%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 25%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202443k35k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $35,060 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 — Cedar Rapids, IA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,590$28,280
Retail Salespersons3,410$33,430
Customer Service Representatives3,130$45,510
Cashiers3,090$29,270
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers3,030$58,900
Registered Nurses2,880$78,370

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 Cedar Rapids, IA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Metro High SchoolCedar Rapids Comm School District28811.5
City View HighCedar Rapids Comm School District10020.0

71.6% 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 Iowa’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 $778 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
26.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$778
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$157,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.48Top 22%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate9.9%Bottom 2%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1971,497Top 47%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$41$778Bottom 21%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$78,089$157,100Bottom 29%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.6%Top 11%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.6%Bottom 48%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
39/ 100
Ranks 3704 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.

At 2.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
394
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.9
Top 50% nationally
Year over year
−38%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
40.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Cedar Rapids, IA, 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 11°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CEDAR RAPIDS MUNI AP, 7.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index60.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low11°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing53°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
60
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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
TornadoHigh
DroughtModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

Linn 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 10.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.7 per 100,000 residents in Linn County.

Homicide
2.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.9
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 Linn 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 52401 rather than 52401 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 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
The Eastern IowaCID7 mi8,600 ft
Waterloo RgnlALO55 mi8,399 ft
Quad Cities IntlMLI70 mi10,002 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
59
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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.

52401 vs Cedar Rapids

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

52401
Cedar Rapids
Median household income
$35,060
vs
$70,424
Per capita income
$30,890
vs
$41,256
Population density
1,833/sq mi
vs
1,839/sq mi
Median home value
$157,100
vs
$187,100
Median gross rent
$778
vs
$967
Homeownership rate
9.9%
vs
68.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
32.6%
vs
33.1%
Poverty rate
31.8%
vs
10.8%
Median age
34.4
vs
37.3

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.