68801Grand Island, Nebraska

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 68801.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 32% of 6,210 published ZIP areas63
Schools3495th of 4,422 published ZIP areas28
GrowthTop 42% of 5,428 published ZIP areas55
Housing affordabilityTop 16% of 6,685 published ZIP areas97
Climate5852nd of 6,789 published ZIP areas60
Physical resilience5391st of 6,709 published ZIP areas24
Access6625th of 6,791 published ZIP areas46
Economic stability3411th of 6,742 published ZIP areas59
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.1% and median household income $63,617, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

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 3.2 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
30,824
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,617
Bottom 36% nationally
Density
343/sq mi
89.9 sq mi of land
Median age
31.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Grand Island
Nebraska
Metro area
Grand Island, NE
Nearest major airport
LNK
81 mi · Lincoln
Median home value
$203,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 95% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 28,608 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,296$63,617Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,192$30,371Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.6%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.6 minBottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.8%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,608Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 37%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 34%June 2026
Labor force29,529Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force participation70.8%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$56,870Bottom 9%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,410Bottom 40%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 5%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,617 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 — Grand Island, NE
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,250$29,150
Retail Salespersons1,070$30,830
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers970$60,810
General and Operations Managers870$79,520
Cashiers860$30,050
Registered Nurses830$82,590

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 Grand Island, NE, the city containing this ZIP code.

30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
30.0%
Bottom 21% in Nebraska
Reading proficiency
35.6%
Bottom 18% in Nebraska
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
BARR MIDDLE SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS64812.732%32%
HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS48417.323%27%
STARR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS45316.228%38%
DODGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS43615.028%36%
WASMER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS37315.522%35%
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS35214.721%25%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS32814.928%35%
KNICKREHM ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS26316.437%47%
STOLLEY PARK ELEM SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS25813.662%57%
SEEDLING MILE ELEM SCHOOLGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS878.738%50%
LOCKWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTHWEST PUBLIC SCHOOLS3216.0
CAREER PATHWAYS INSTITUTEGRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS0

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 Nebraska’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 $962 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$962
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$203,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.20Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.4%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±37911,894Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$48$962Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,096$203,500Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.1%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.2%Bottom 19%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
55/ 100
Top 42% 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 14% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 3.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
177
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.3
Top 45% nationally
Year over year
+77%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
13.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Grand Island, NE, 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 88°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 26.6 inches, including 27.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 32, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GRAND ISLAND AP, 1.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index56.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation26.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall27.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index32.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing51°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
32
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
56
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

24 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailHigh
DroughtModerate
Strong windElevated
Ice stormModerate
TornadoElevated
Inland floodingElevated
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

Hall County records 0.0 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 12.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 4.0 per 100,000 residents in Hall County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.0
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 Hall 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 68801 rather than 68801 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 81 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
LincolnLNK81 mi8,649 ft
North Platte Rgnl/Lee Bird FldLBF125 mi8,001 ft
Eppley AirfieldOMA127 mi9,502 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)
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.

68801 vs Grand Island

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

68801
Grand Island
Median household income
$63,617
vs
$63,795
Per capita income
$30,371
vs
$33,902
Population density
343/sq mi
vs
1,756/sq mi
Median home value
$203,500
vs
$218,600
Median gross rent
$962
vs
$947
Homeownership rate
57.4%
vs
57.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.8%
vs
20.9%
Poverty rate
18.6%
vs
15.2%
Median age
31.9
vs
34.7

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.