52627Fort Madison, Iowa

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 52627.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 46% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3528th of 6,210 published ZIP areas52
GrowthTop 46% of 5,428 published ZIP areas52
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate5663rd of 6,789 published ZIP areas60
Physical resilience4409th of 6,709 published ZIP areas45
Access6381st of 6,791 published ZIP areas58
Economic stability5230th of 6,742 published ZIP areas43
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.4% and median household income $56,401, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.1 times it.

A typical July reaches 85°F and a typical January falls to 16°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
12,677
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,401
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
199/sq mi
63.9 sq mi of land
Median age
41.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Fort Madison
Iowa
Metro area
Fort Madison, IA
Nearest major airport
MLI
70 mi · Quad Cities Intl
Median home value
$116,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 1.0% over the past year, to 14,175 employed residents.

Median household income of $56,401 is below 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,420$56,401Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,112$32,663Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.2%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.5%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,175Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.0%Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force14,674Bottom 8%June 2026
Labor force participation56.1%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202457k52k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,401 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.

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

There are 14.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
1
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Fort Madison Junior/Senior High SchoolFort Madison Comm School District85214.0

51.8% 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 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 $822 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.1 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$822
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$116,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.07Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.0%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3236,140Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$118$822Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,280$116,500Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.5%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.2%Bottom 39%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
52/ 100
Top 46% 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.

88% 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 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
25
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.5
Bottom 46% nationally
Year over year
+1150%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
88.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Fort Madison, 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 85°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.9 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BURLINGTON MUNI AP, 14.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation37.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing51°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

45 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
Heat waveModerate
DroughtElevated
Strong windElevated
Inland floodingElevated
TornadoHigh
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, lightning, ice storm, earthquake, winter weather, 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.

Lee County records 3.1 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 13.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.6 per 100,000 residents in Lee County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.6
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 Lee 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 52627 rather than 52627 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 70 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Quad Cities IntlMLI70 mi10,002 ft
The Eastern IowaCID87 mi8,600 ft
General Downing - Peoria IntlPIA87 mi10,104 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
59
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
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

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.

52627 vs Fort Madison

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

52627
Fort Madison
Median household income
$56,401
vs
$50,705
Per capita income
$32,663
vs
$29,507
Population density
199/sq mi
vs
1,050/sq mi
Median home value
$116,500
vs
$94,200
Median gross rent
$822
vs
$826
Homeownership rate
76.0%
vs
72.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
21.5%
vs
18.5%
Poverty rate
13.2%
vs
15.0%
Median age
41.7
vs
42.1

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.