51108Sioux City, Iowa

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 51108.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 33% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 19% of 6,210 published ZIP areas71
Schools2822nd of 4,422 published ZIP areas41
Growth4083rd of 5,428 published ZIP areas35
Housing affordabilityTop 19% of 6,685 published ZIP areas96
Climate6305th of 6,789 published ZIP areas56
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 6,709 published ZIP areas69
AccessTop 35% of 6,791 published ZIP areas96
Economic stabilityTop 21% of 6,742 published ZIP areas75
The quick read

51108 ranks in the top 19% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $81,205.

Residential permitting has slowed: 109 units authorized over the past twelve months, 35% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 2.1 times it.

At a glance

Population
5,960
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,205
Top 36% nationally
Density
130/sq mi
46.0 sq mi of land
Median age
37.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Sioux City
Iowa
Metro area
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD
Nearest major airport
SUX
11 mi · Sioux Gateway/Brig General Bud Day Fld
Median home value
$169,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 44,580 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$15,585$81,205Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,719$38,642Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.5%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.1 minBottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.7%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment44,580Bottom 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 33%June 2026
Labor force46,142Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force participation63.2%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$56,240Bottom 8%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,030Bottom 20%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202481k71k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,205 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 — Sioux City, IA-NE-SD
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers2,820$51,540
Retail Salespersons2,220$30,150
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,060$29,090
Food Processing Workers, All Other1,710$46,350
Cashiers1,700$29,470
Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers1,700$47,580

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 Sioux City, IA, the city containing this ZIP code.

56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
56.3%
Bottom 39% in Iowa
Reading proficiency
53.4%
Bottom 32% in Iowa
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
North Middle SchoolSioux City Comm School District1,13615.856%54%
Leeds Elementary SchoolSioux City Comm School District59313.557%52%

90.0% 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 $1,350 takes 20% 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
19.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,350
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$169,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.09Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.3%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2612,160Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$632$1,350Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,913$169,700Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.9%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate0.0%Bottom 1%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
35/ 100
Ranks 4083 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.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 11% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
109
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.3
Bottom 30% nationally
Year over year
−35%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
11.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Sioux City, 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 10°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.3 inches, including 36.0 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SIOUX CITY GATEWAY AP, 12.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall36.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low10°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing54°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

69 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
DroughtModerate
TornadoElevated
Winter weatherModerate
WildfireModerate
Cold waveModerate
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, ice storm, inland flooding, earthquake.

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.

Woodbury County records 2.7 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 8.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.2 per 100,000 residents in Woodbury County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.1
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 Woodbury 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 51108 rather than 51108 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 11 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Sioux Gateway/Brig General Bud Day FldSUX11 mi9,002 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD73 mi9,000 ft
Eppley AirfieldOMA90 mi9,502 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
65
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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

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.

51108 vs Sioux City

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

51108
Sioux City
Median household income
$81,205
vs
$68,906
Per capita income
$38,642
vs
$33,795
Population density
130/sq mi
vs
1,456/sq mi
Median home value
$169,700
vs
$173,600
Median gross rent
$1,350
vs
$976
Homeownership rate
83.3%
vs
65.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
28.7%
vs
22.9%
Poverty rate
6.5%
vs
15.3%
Median age
37.6
vs
34.9

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.