56073New Ulm, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 56073.

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

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3853rd of 6,210 ZIP areas measured49
Schools2662nd of 4,422 ZIP areas measured44
GrowthTop 11% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured73
Housing affordabilityTop 12% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured99
Climate6618th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured54
Physical resilienceTop 24% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured80
Access6543rd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured50
Economic stabilityTop 33% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured69
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 134 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 570% on the prior year.

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 3.1 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 56073 in the top 24% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
17,339
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$70,250
Bottom 47% nationally
Density
86/sq mi
200.6 sq mi of land
Median age
41.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
New Ulm
Minnesota
Metro area
New Ulm, MN
Nearest major airport
MSP
73 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$218,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 48% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 13,488 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,022$70,250Bottom 47%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,470$37,912Top 45%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 37%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.2 minBottom 4%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.2%Top 40%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,488Bottom 7%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 45%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 40%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force14,118Bottom 7%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation65.4%Top 31%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 24%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 48%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202470k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $70,250 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 New Ulm, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

44% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
43.6%
Bottom 40% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
45.7%
Bottom 35% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOLNEW ULM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT68718.6
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARYNEW ULM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT64313.447%40%
New Ulm Middle SchoolNEW ULM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT61715.840%52%
Washington Learning CenterNEW ULM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT18012.0
RIVER BEND EARLY CHILDHOOD PROG.RIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT9022.5
RIVER BEND AREA LEARNING CENTERRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT436.1
IMPRINTS PROGRAMRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT305.0
R.I.S.E. ProgramRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT175.7
Raptor ProgramRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT153.8
W.O.R.K. ProgramRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT88.0
New Ulm CTE CenterNEW ULM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT0
River Bend ALC Credit Recovery ProgRIVER BEND EDUCATION DISTRICT0

32.2% 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 $959 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$959
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$218,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.11Top 50%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.9%Bottom 48%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1887,718Top 21%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$959Bottom 45%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,771$218,700Top 50%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.4%Bottom 41%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.8%Bottom 22%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
73/ 100
Top 11% 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.

87% 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 9.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
134
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.5
Top 13% nationally
Year over year
+570%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
87.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for New Ulm, 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 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 31.1 inches, including 38.3 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEW ULM 2 SE, 1.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation31.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall38.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 73% of measured US ZIP areas.

Winter weatherModerate
Strong windHigh
HailModerate
TornadoHigh
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
LightningModerate

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

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 73 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP73 mi11,006 ft
Rochester IntlRST102 mi9,034 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD124 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
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
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.

56073 vs New Ulm

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

56073
New Ulm
Median household income
$70,250
vs
$64,449
Per capita income
$37,912
vs
$35,978
Population density
86/sq mi
vs
1,383/sq mi
Median home value
$218,700
vs
$204,200
Median gross rent
$959
vs
$962
Homeownership rate
77.9%
vs
75.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
27.2%
vs
27.9%
Poverty rate
8.2%
vs
9.2%
Median age
41.0
vs
39.3

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.