13603Fort Drum, New York

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 13603.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3797th of 6,210 published ZIP areas49
Housing affordability6056th of 6,685 published ZIP areas46
Climate6680th of 6,789 published ZIP areas52
Physical resilienceTop 25% of 6,709 published ZIP areas79
Access6252nd of 6,791 published ZIP areas64
Economic stabilityTop 25% of 6,742 published ZIP areas73
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.1% and median household income $62,500, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Rent takes 31% of median household income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 13603 in the top 25% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
14,136
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$62,500
Bottom 34% nationally
Density
2,553/sq mi
5.5 sq mi of land
Median age
24.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Fort Drum
New York
Metro area
Watertown-Fort Drum, NY
Nearest major airport
RME
58 mi · Griffiss Intl
Median home value

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 65% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 44,010 employed residents.

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,174$62,500Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,312$25,708Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.6%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute14.0 minBottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.8%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment44,010Bottom 43%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 48%June 2026
Labor force45,885Bottom 43%June 2026
Labor force participation76.9%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$59,110Bottom 15%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,600Bottom 24%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 37%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $62,500 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 — Watertown-Fort Drum, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,490$34,280
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,150$32,580
Cashiers1,100$33,040
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,090$37,440
Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary990$34,190
Registered Nurses900$96,070

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 Fort Drum, NY, the city containing this ZIP code.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,627 takes 31% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

Rent as a share of income
31.2%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,627
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Homeownership rate4.0%Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3515,299Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$86$1,627Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income31.2%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.3%Bottom 14%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 10°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.1 inches.

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°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WATERTOWN INTL AP, 11.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low10°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index32.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing49°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
32
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
44
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

79 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are strong wind, earthquake and ice storm.

Ice stormModerate
Strong windElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, inland flooding, cold wave, hurricane, landslide, lightning, wildfire, tornado, coastal flooding, hail.

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.

Jefferson County records 1.5 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 9.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.1 per 100,000 residents in Jefferson County.

Homicide
1.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.8
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 Jefferson 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 13603 rather than 13603 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Griffiss IntlRME58 mi11,820 ft
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR65 mi9,013 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC113 mi8,001 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)
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
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.

13603 vs Fort Drum

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

13603
Fort Drum
Median household income
$62,500
vs
$62,291
Per capita income
$25,708
vs
$25,938
Population density
2,553/sq mi
vs
1,120/sq mi
Median gross rent
$1,627
vs
$1,622
Homeownership rate
4.0%
vs
4.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
36.8%
vs
34.8%
Poverty rate
11.6%
vs
11.7%
Median age
24.0
vs
23.3

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.