45891Van Wert, Ohio

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 45891.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 30% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3915th of 6,210 published ZIP areas49
SchoolsTop 31% of 4,422 published ZIP areas66
Growth3387th of 5,428 published ZIP areas42
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate5355th of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 6,709 published ZIP areas86
Access6334th of 6,791 published ZIP areas61
Economic stability3859th of 6,742 published ZIP areas56
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.2% and median household income $64,272, 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 14% of median household income and the median home is 2.4 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 45891 in the top 15% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
15,584
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,272
Bottom 38% nationally
Density
116/sq mi
134.3 sq mi of land
Median age
43.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Van Wert
Ohio
Metro area
Van Wert, OH
Nearest major airport
TOL
63 mi · Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express
Median home value
$152,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.2% is lower than 93% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 13,632 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,028$64,272Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,931$33,998Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.7%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.5 minBottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.9%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,632Bottom 8%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-6.3%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 39%June 2026
Labor force14,079Bottom 7%June 2026
Labor force participation61.8%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.2%Bottom 7%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,272 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 Van Wert, OH, the city containing this ZIP code.

60% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
59.7%
Top 36% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
58.2%
Top 42% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Van Wert Elementary SchoolVan Wert City69215.757%55%
Van Wert High SchoolVan Wert City50917.0
Vantage Career CenterVantage Career Center4895.8
Lincolnview Elementary SchoolLincolnview Local42616.472%71%
Van Wert Middle SchoolVan Wert City39913.832%42%
Lincolnview Jr/Sr High SchoolLincolnview Local34313.782%67%
Van Wert Early Childhood CenterVan Wert City34321.4

63.5% 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 Ohio’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 $772 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.4 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
14.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$772
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$152,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.37Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.8%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1996,819Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$84$772Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,466$152,100Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.4%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.8%Bottom 32%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
42/ 100
Ranks 3387 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 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
23
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 42% nationally
Year over year
+35%
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 Van Wert, OH, 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 85°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.4 inches, including 17.1 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station VAN WERT 1 S, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation40.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall17.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing49°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

86 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 93% of measured US ZIP areas.

EarthquakeElevated
HailModerate
TornadoElevated
Cold waveModerate
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, ice storm, inland flooding, hurricane, winter weather, landslide, wildfire.

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.

Van Wert County records 4.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of 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 9.7 per 100,000 residents in Van Wert County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.9
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 Van Wert 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 45891 rather than 45891 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 63 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Eugene F Kranz Toledo ExpressTOL63 mi10,600 ft
James M Cox Dayton IntlDAY70 mi8,502 ft
Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg FldBTL105 mi10,004 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
66
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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.

45891 vs Van Wert

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

45891
Van Wert
Median household income
$64,272
vs
$55,113
Per capita income
$33,998
vs
$30,872
Population density
116/sq mi
vs
1,433/sq mi
Median home value
$152,100
vs
$123,900
Median gross rent
$772
vs
$765
Homeownership rate
78.8%
vs
71.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.9%
vs
16.0%
Poverty rate
10.7%
vs
14.2%
Median age
43.0
vs
41.2

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.