55057Northfield, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 55057.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 24% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 39% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured60
SchoolsTop 21% of 4,422 ZIP areas measured74
GrowthTop 35% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured59
Housing affordabilityTop 33% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured90
Climate6419th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured55
Physical resilienceTop 39% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured68
Access4822nd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured85
Economic stabilityTop 38% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured66
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $92,622, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 59% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.5 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 14% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.9 times that income.

At a glance

Population
25,650
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$92,622
Top 24% nationally
Density
206/sq mi
124.7 sq mi of land
Median age
32.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Northfield
Minnesota
Metro area
Faribault-Northfield, MN
Nearest major airport
MSP
28 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$363,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 43% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 34,647 employed residents.

51% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$9,918$92,622Top 24%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,944$39,360Top 41%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 37%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.1 minBottom 17%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher50.5%Top 12%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment34,647Bottom 36%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 31%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 42%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force36,336Bottom 35%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation64.4%Top 35%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 31%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 43%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202498k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $92,622 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 Northfield, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

59% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 62% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
59.5%
Top 20% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
62.1%
Top 21% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
NORTHFIELD SENIOR HIGHNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT1,28321.0
NORTHFIELD MIDDLENORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT84519.257%62%
BRIDGEWATER ELEMENTARYNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT56414.170%67%
GREENVALE PARK ELEMENTARYNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT48811.957%58%
Spring Creek ElementaryNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT44512.069%65%
PRAIRIE CREEK COMMUNITY SCHOOL · charterPRAIRIE CREEK COMMUNITY SCHOOL18012.050%70%
Northfield Community Education CntrNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT1177.3
ARCADIA CHARTER SCHOOL · charterARCADIA CHARTER SCHOOL11612.9
NORTHFIELD AREA LEARNING CENTERNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT10721.410%30%
School Readiness PlusNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT0
Big 9 Online ElementaryNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT0
Big 9 Online Middle SchoolNORTHFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT0

28.7% 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 $1,113 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 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
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,113
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$363,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.93Top 30%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.3%Bottom 39%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2998,604Top 19%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$79$1,113Top 42%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,926$363,600Top 24%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.4%Bottom 26%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.7%Bottom 26%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
59/ 100
Top 35% 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 1.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
28
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.3
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
+133%
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 Northfield, 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 9°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 31.6 inches, including 51.2 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 MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL AP, 28.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation31.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall51.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low9°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing58°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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
HailElevated
TornadoElevated
Heat waveModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, inland flooding, winter weather, landslide, ice storm, drought, 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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Rice County records 1.9 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 6.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.1 per 100,000 residents in Rice County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.0
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 Rice 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 55057 rather than 55057 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 28 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP28 mi11,006 ft
Rochester IntlRST52 mi9,034 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU88 mi8,101 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
68
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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.

55057 vs Northfield

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

55057
Northfield
Median household income
$92,622
vs
$84,895
Per capita income
$39,360
vs
$36,703
Population density
206/sq mi
vs
2,428/sq mi
Median home value
$363,600
vs
$329,400
Median gross rent
$1,113
vs
$1,103
Homeownership rate
74.3%
vs
69.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
50.5%
vs
53.3%
Poverty rate
8.2%
vs
8.8%
Median age
32.2
vs
28.2

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.