55901Rochester, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 55901.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 37% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 44% of 6,210 published ZIP areas58
Schools3059th of 4,422 published ZIP areas37
GrowthTop 15% of 5,428 published ZIP areas70
Housing affordabilityTop 18% of 6,685 published ZIP areas96
Climate6618th of 6,789 published ZIP areas54
Physical resilience3460th of 6,709 published ZIP areas57
AccessTop 25% of 6,791 published ZIP areas97
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 6,742 published ZIP areas74
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 1,215 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 156% on the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 18% of median household income and the median home is 3.4 times it.

A major airport is 12 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
58,495
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$94,607
Top 23% nationally
Density
1,768/sq mi
33.1 sq mi of land
Median age
34.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Rochester
Minnesota
Metro area
Rochester, MN
Nearest major airport
RST
12 mi · Rochester Intl
Median home value
$317,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 74% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.9% over the past year, to 66,212 employed residents.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,986$94,607Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,081$48,948Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.3 minBottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.1%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment66,212Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.1%Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.9%Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force68,816Top 44%June 2026
Labor force participation71.0%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$80,590Top 15%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$60,620Top 16%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 27%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202495k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $94,607 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 — Rochester, MN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses6,390$101,660
Home Health and Personal Care Aides4,260$39,270
Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants3,890
Retail Salespersons2,900$36,000
Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians2,880
Cashiers2,600$34,960

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 Rochester, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

40% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
40.3%
Bottom 34% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
47.7%
Bottom 40% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
John Marshall High SchoolRochester Public School District1,549
Dakota Middle SchoolRochester Public School District921
John Adams Middle SchoolRochester Public School District86722%42%
Gibbs Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District67557%62%
Overland Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District549
Bishop Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District54551%51%
Sunset Terrace Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District43737%40%
Gage Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District41224%32%
Washington Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District33468%68%
Elton Hills Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District30830%39%
Hoover Elementary SchoolRochester Public School District22845%46%
Hoover Early Learning SchoolRochester Public School District211

42.2% 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 $1,403 takes 18% 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.

Rent as a share of income
17.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,403
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$317,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.35Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.3%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±60125,010Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,403Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,389$317,000Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.8%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.4%Bottom 25%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
70/ 100
Top 15% 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.

76% 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 9.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
1,215
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.9
Top 12% nationally
Year over year
+156%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
75.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Rochester, 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 80°F and January a low of 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.7 inches, including 53.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ROCHESTER INTL AP, 12.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation34.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall53.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing56°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

57 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoElevated
Inland floodingElevated
HailModerate
Strong windModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, landslide, heat wave, 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.

Olmsted 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 7.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.8 per 100,000 residents in Olmsted County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.5
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 Olmsted 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 55901 rather than 55901 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rochester IntlRST12 mi9,034 ft
La Crosse RgnlLSE63 mi8,742 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP66 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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Area Score
64
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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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.

55901 vs Rochester

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

55901
Rochester
Median household income
$94,607
vs
$89,389
Per capita income
$48,948
vs
$52,671
Population density
1,768/sq mi
vs
2,159/sq mi
Median home value
$317,000
vs
$310,500
Median gross rent
$1,403
vs
$1,399
Homeownership rate
64.3%
vs
65.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
51.1%
vs
50.9%
Poverty rate
8.2%
vs
8.5%
Median age
34.7
vs
36.3

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.