66801Emporia, Kansas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 66801.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 25% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5938th of 6,210 published ZIP areas24
Schools2704th of 4,422 published ZIP areas43
Growth3619th of 5,428 published ZIP areas40
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate3690th of 6,789 published ZIP areas69
Physical resilience3611th of 6,709 published ZIP areas55
Access5838th of 6,791 published ZIP areas73
Economic stability4086th of 6,742 published ZIP areas54
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places 66801 in the bottom 4%.

In the public schools here, 23% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.5 students for every teacher.

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 2.7 times it.

At a glance

Population
27,585
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,794
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
92/sq mi
301.1 sq mi of land
Median age
32.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Emporia
Kansas
Metro area
Emporia, KS
Nearest major airport
FOE
48 mi · Topeka Rgnl
Median home value
$152,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 25% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.2% over the past year, to 12,198 employed residents.

Median household income of $56,794 is below 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,073$56,794Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,307$29,035Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.9%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute14.9 minBottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.6%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment12,198Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-8.0%Bottom 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.2%Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force12,855Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation69.5%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 9%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 25%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202458k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,794 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 Emporia, KS, the city containing this ZIP code.

23% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 31% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.7%
Bottom 39% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
31.3%
Bottom 36% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Emporia HighEmporia1,49416.1
Emporia Middle SchoolEmporia84313.411%22%
Village ElemEmporia40115.425%38%
Riverside ElementaryEmporia38514.818%18%
Timmerman ElementaryEmporia37012.840%46%
Walnut ElemEmporia31214.229%44%
W A White ElemEmporia24813.836%32%
Logan Ave ElemEmporia20812.220%35%

62.8% 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 Kansas’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 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$822
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$152,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.69Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.7%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±17313,103Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$822Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,254$152,700Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.4%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.5%Bottom 48%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
40/ 100
Ranks 3619 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 1.0 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
1.0
Bottom 27% nationally
Year over year
+178%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
96.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Emporia, KS, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.8 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station EMPORIA MUNI AP, 5.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation34.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing48°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

55 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 79% of measured US ZIP areas.

WildfireHigh
Winter weatherModerate
TornadoElevated
HailModerate
Heat waveElevated
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, lightning, drought, strong wind, cold wave, landslide, 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.

Lyon County records 3.4 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 15.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.8 per 100,000 residents in Lyon County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.4
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 Lyon 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 66801 rather than 66801 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 48 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Topeka RgnlFOE48 mi12,803 ft
Beech FactoryBEC73 mi8,001 ft
Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower NtlICT84 mi10,302 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
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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
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.

66801 vs Emporia

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

66801
Emporia
Median household income
$56,794
vs
$52,704
Per capita income
$29,035
vs
$27,304
Population density
92/sq mi
vs
1,938/sq mi
Median home value
$152,700
vs
$132,700
Median gross rent
$822
vs
$815
Homeownership rate
53.7%
vs
49.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.6%
vs
24.4%
Poverty rate
15.9%
vs
17.8%
Median age
32.2
vs
30.2

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.