56201Willmar, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 56201.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 40% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4936th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured40
Schools3111th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured36
Growth4132nd of 5,428 ZIP areas measured34
Housing affordabilityTop 13% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured98
Climate6702nd of 6,789 ZIP areas measured51
Physical resilienceTop 9% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured92
Access6687th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured39
Economic stability3692nd of 6,742 ZIP areas measured57
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places 56201 in the bottom 21%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 8 units authorized over the past twelve months, 27% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 56201 in the top 9% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
25,146
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$68,804
Bottom 45% nationally
Density
213/sq mi
118.1 sq mi of land
Median age
36.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Willmar
Minnesota
Metro area
Willmar, MN
Nearest major airport
MSP
90 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$216,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 22% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 22,013 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,252$68,804Bottom 45%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,906$33,913Bottom 40%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.9%Top 43%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute14.5 minBottom 4%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.8%Top 41%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,013Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.2%Top 33%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force23,221Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation64.4%Top 35%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 15%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 22%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202469k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $68,804 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 Willmar, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

34% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
34.1%
Bottom 29% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
35.5%
Bottom 19% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Willmar Senior HighWillmar Public School District1,20516.3
Willmar Middle SchoolWillmar Public School District84213.837%42%
Kennedy ElementaryWillmar Public School District67212.235%30%
Lakeland Elementary SchoolWillmar Public School District62313.531%34%
Roosevelt ElementaryWillmar Public School District58012.632%34%
Willmar Area Learning CenterWillmar Public School District917.6
Jefferson Learning CenterWillmar Public School District896.8
DREAM Technical Academy · charterTECHNICAL ACADEMIES OF MINNESOTA7224.0
Lake Park SchoolWillmar Public School District33
Middle School ALCWillmar Public School District27
Prairie Lakes Education CenterWillmar Public School District192.4
Lakeview SchoolWillmar Public School District11

65.0% 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 $910 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
15.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$910
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$216,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.14Top 49%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.9%Bottom 19%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±24110,442Top 15%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$910Bottom 38%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,649$216,300Bottom 49%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.9%Bottom 37%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.8%Bottom 32%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
34/ 100
Ranks 4132 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 0.4 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
0.4
Bottom 13% nationally
Year over year
−27%
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 Willmar, 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 3°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 28.7 inches, including 46.1 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 WILLMAR WWTP, 0.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation28.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall46.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low3°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing60°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

92 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 71% of measured US ZIP areas.

Strong windElevated
HailModerate
TornadoModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Kandiyohi 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.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.0 per 100,000 residents in Kandiyohi County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
22.8
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 Kandiyohi 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 56201 rather than 56201 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 90 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP90 mi11,006 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD134 mi9,000 ft
Rochester IntlRST150 mi9,034 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
57
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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.

56201 vs Willmar

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

56201
Willmar
Median household income
$68,804
vs
$62,280
Per capita income
$33,913
vs
$31,826
Population density
213/sq mi
vs
1,502/sq mi
Median home value
$216,300
vs
$198,400
Median gross rent
$910
vs
$910
Homeownership rate
62.9%
vs
59.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.8%
vs
25.3%
Poverty rate
11.9%
vs
13.1%
Median age
36.5
vs
35.5

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.