56031Fairmont, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 56031.

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

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 41% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured59
SchoolsTop 48% of 4,422 ZIP areas measured53
GrowthTop 46% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured52
Housing affordabilityTop 16% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured97
Climate6640th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured53
Physical resilienceTop 25% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured80
Access6721st of 6,791 ZIP areas measured33
Economic stability4782nd of 6,742 ZIP areas measured47
The quick read

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 16% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 56031 in the top 25% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 100 miles away, which is farther than most measured US ZIP areas.

At a glance

Population
11,665
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$54,847
Bottom 22% nationally
Density
75/sq mi
156.3 sq mi of land
Median age
46.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Fairmont
Minnesota
Metro area
Fairmont, MN
Nearest major airport
RST
100 mi · Rochester Intl
Median home value
$179,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 40% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 3.0% over the past year, to 10,468 employed residents.

Median household income of $54,847 is below 78% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,964$54,847Bottom 22%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,617$39,004Top 42%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.4%Top 34%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.1 minBottom 4%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.6%Top 44%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,468Bottom 3%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.9%Top 2%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.0%Top 1%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force10,983Bottom 2%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation60.8%Top 50%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 34%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 40%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202461k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $54,847 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 Fairmont, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

50% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.3 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
50.3%
Top 37% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
50.2%
Bottom 46% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
FAIRMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLFAIRMONT AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT1,00715.553%49%
FAIRMONT JR./SR. HIGH SCHOOLFAIRMONT AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT83920.047%52%
SOUTHERN PLAINS AREA LEARNING CNTR.SOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.4711.8
SOUTHERN PLAINS BRIDGESSOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.234.6
SOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.SOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.199.5
POSITIVE APPROACH TO LEARNINGSOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.55.0

54.8% 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 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 $739 takes 16% 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
16.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$739
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$179,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.27Top 45%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.8%Bottom 20%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1565,920Top 25%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$739Bottom 17%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,902$179,300Bottom 38%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.2%Bottom 39%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 36%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
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 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
8
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 21% nationally
Year over year
+100%
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 Fairmont, 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 81°F and January a low of 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.3 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ESTHERVILLE MUNI AP, 20.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing56°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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

Winter weatherModerate
HailElevated
Strong windHigh
Cold waveModerate
TornadoHigh
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: drought, ice storm, inland flooding, landslide, lightning, wildfire, 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Martin County records 0.0 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 10.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.6 per 100,000 residents in Martin County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.6
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 Martin 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 56031 rather than 56031 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rochester IntlRST100 mi9,034 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP106 mi11,006 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD114 mi9,000 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
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.

56031 vs Fairmont

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

56031
Fairmont
Median household income
$54,847
vs
$53,084
Per capita income
$39,004
vs
$37,825
Population density
75/sq mi
vs
686/sq mi
Median home value
$179,300
vs
$169,900
Median gross rent
$739
vs
$738
Homeownership rate
63.8%
vs
60.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
25.6%
vs
25.7%
Poverty rate
14.4%
vs
15.3%
Median age
46.8
vs
46.6

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.