55330Elk River, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 55330.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 38% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4107th of 6,210 published ZIP areas47
SchoolsTop 32% of 4,422 published ZIP areas65
GrowthTop 46% of 5,428 published ZIP areas52
Housing affordabilityTop 17% of 6,685 published ZIP areas97
Climate6580th of 6,789 published ZIP areas54
Physical resilienceTop 43% of 6,709 published ZIP areas65
Access5731st of 6,791 published ZIP areas74
Economic stabilityTop 2% of 6,742 published ZIP areas87
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $115,761, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 58% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 19.6 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 14% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

At a glance

Population
45,721
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$115,761
Top 11% nationally
Density
429/sq mi
106.6 sq mi of land
Median age
37.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Elk River
Minnesota
Metro area
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
MSP
35 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$382,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 35% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 14,553 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 73% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 89% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,112$115,761Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,860$49,633Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.8%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.1 minTop 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.9%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,553Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.6%Bottom 25%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 21%June 2026
Labor force15,281Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force participation72.7%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$74,580Top 25%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,320Top 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024116k99k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $115,761 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 — Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides93,560$38,860
Retail Salespersons51,180$36,670
General and Operations Managers44,890$103,570
Registered Nurses43,600$103,040
Customer Service Representatives38,630$49,480
Fast Food and Counter Workers37,920$33,040

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 Elk River, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 62% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 19.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
25
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
58.1%
Top 24% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
62.0%
Top 21% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ELK RIVER SENIOR HIGHElk River Public School District1,56226.5
Prairie View Middle SchoolElk River Public School District95325.862%57%
Prairie View Elementary SchoolElk River Public School District75517.270%62%
TWIN LAKES ELEMENTARYElk River Public School District70418.171%74%
SALK MIDDLE SCHOOLElk River Public School District63824.547%62%
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOLElk River Public School District55724.242%42%
MEADOWVALE ELEMENTARYElk River Public School District55417.362%69%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARYElk River Public School District55416.832%51%
OTSEGO ELEMENTARYElk River Public School District53617.363%65%
PARKER ELEMENTARYElk River Public School District51317.171%75%
SPECTRUM HIGH SCHOOL · charterSPECTRUM HIGH SCHOOL50216.7
Handke Center- EC Special EducationElk River Public School District39917.3

22.9% 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 Minnesota’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 $1,385 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,385
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$382,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.31Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate84.2%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±54217,022Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$144$1,385Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,525$382,600Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.4%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 16%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.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
109
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.1
Top 38% nationally
Year over year
−14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Elk River, MN, 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 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 30.7 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MPLS CRYSTAL AP, 21.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation30.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing57°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

65 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windElevated
HailModerate
TornadoModerate
WildfireModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, cold wave, ice storm, 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.

Sherburne County records 2.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 9.2 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 Sherburne County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.8
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 Sherburne 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 55330 rather than 55330 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 35 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP35 mi11,006 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU107 mi8,101 ft
Rochester IntlRST111 mi9,034 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
63
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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.

55330 vs Elk River

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

55330
Elk River
Median household income
$115,761
vs
$108,741
Per capita income
$49,633
vs
$50,113
Population density
429/sq mi
vs
633/sq mi
Median home value
$382,600
vs
$370,100
Median gross rent
$1,385
vs
$1,283
Homeownership rate
84.2%
vs
79.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
34.9%
vs
33.8%
Poverty rate
3.8%
vs
3.4%
Median age
37.7
vs
37.2

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.