56560Moorhead, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 56560.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4424th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured45
Schools2954th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured38
Growth4318th of 5,428 ZIP areas measured32
Housing affordabilityTop 19% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured96
Climate6731st of 6,789 ZIP areas measured49
Physical resilience5052nd of 6,709 ZIP areas measured31
Access3884th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured90
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured64
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.4% and the Opportunity signal places 56560 in the bottom 29%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 87 units authorized over the past twelve months, 67% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, cold wave and tornado.

At a glance

Population
44,405
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,406
Top 44% nationally
Density
282/sq mi
157.4 sq mi of land
Median age
32.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Moorhead
Minnesota
Metro area
Fargo, ND-MN
Nearest major airport
FAR
7 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$253,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 52% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.6% over the past year, to 23,318 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,485$75,406Top 44%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,629$39,316Top 41%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.7%Top 29%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.3 minBottom 11%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.6%Top 19%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,318Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.7%Bottom 23%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.6%Bottom 12%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force24,397Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation71.5%Top 11%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,380Bottom 34%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,050Top 48%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 7%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Bottom 48%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,406 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 — Fargo, ND-MN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses4,790$82,120
Retail Salespersons4,160$35,860
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,090$30,950
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand3,810$45,690
General and Operations Managers3,590$96,410
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers3,570$58,900

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 Moorhead, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
42.1%
Bottom 37% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
45.4%
Bottom 34% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HORIZON MIDDLE SCHOOLMoorhead Area Public Schools2,15817.035%47%
MOORHEAD HIGH SCHOOLMoorhead Area Public Schools2,12219.1
S.G. Reinertsen ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools71913.852%52%
Dorothy Dodds Elementary SchoolMoorhead Area Public Schools62513.344%37%
ELLEN HOPKINS ELEMENTARYMoorhead Area Public Schools61614.350%43%
Robert Asp ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools58013.546%43%
Probstfield ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools29041.4
PROBSTFIELD CENTER FOR EDUCATIONMoorhead Area Public Schools2537.4
Moorhead ALCMoorhead Area Public Schools1389.9
West Central Academy-SMoorhead Area Public Schools348.5
West Central Academy-NMoorhead Area Public Schools16
Moorhead ALC - BarnesvilleMoorhead Area Public Schools0

47.1% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 11% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,035 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
89.1

Prices here run about 11% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
16.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,035
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$253,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index89.1Bottom 7%of 6,0712023
Home price to income3.36Top 43%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.0%Bottom 15%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±22819,656Top 4%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,035Top 48%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,297$253,200Top 41%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.5%Bottom 41%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.6%Bottom 15%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
32/ 100
Ranks 4318 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 1.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
87
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.9
Bottom 39% nationally
Year over year
−67%
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 Moorhead, 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 82°F and January a low of 0°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 24.0 inches, including 51.4 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FARGO HECTOR INTL AP, 7.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation24.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall51.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low0°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing62°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

31 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveElevated
Inland floodingHigh
HailModerate
Strong windElevated
TornadoHigh

Low or minimal exposure: wildfire, ice storm, drought, landslide, heat wave, lightning, 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.

Clay County records 3.9 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 13.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.1 per 100,000 residents in Clay County.

Homicide
3.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.1
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 Clay 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 56560 rather than 56560 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
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR7 mi9,001 ft
Duluth IntlDLH215 mi10,591 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP216 mi11,006 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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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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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.

56560 vs Moorhead

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

56560
Moorhead
Median household income
$75,406
vs
$72,761
Per capita income
$39,316
vs
$37,546
Population density
282/sq mi
vs
2,021/sq mi
Median home value
$253,200
vs
$249,000
Median gross rent
$1,035
vs
$1,033
Homeownership rate
59.0%
vs
58.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
41.6%
vs
41.6%
Poverty rate
15.7%
vs
16.1%
Median age
32.9
vs
31.3

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.