AreaProfile

18049Emmaus, Pennsylvania

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 18049.

72
Area Score
Top 12% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 6,210 published ZIP areas80
SchoolsTop 31% of 4,422 published ZIP areas67
Growth4142nd of 5,428 published ZIP areas34
Housing affordabilityTop 19% of 6,685 published ZIP areas96
Climate4477th of 6,789 published ZIP areas64
Physical resilienceTop 21% of 6,709 published ZIP areas81
Access5633rd of 6,791 published ZIP areas76
Economic stabilityTop 16% of 6,742 published ZIP areas77
The quick read

18049 ranks in the top 7% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.1% and median household income of $93,694.

Residential permitting has slowed: 3 units authorized over the past twelve months, 97% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 18049 in the top 21% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
18,941
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$93,694
Top 24% nationally
Density
1,263/sq mi
15.0 sq mi of land
Median age
41.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Emmaus
Pennsylvania
Metro area
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ
Nearest major airport
PHL
47 mi · Philadelphia Intl
Median home value
$315,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment grew 3.3% over the past year, to 194,585 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 79% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,214$93,694Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,161$48,795Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.3%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.2 minBottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.8%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment194,585Top 23%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.7%Top 6%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.3%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force202,933Top 23%June 2026
Labor force participation65.9%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,090Bottom 32%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,990Bottom 38%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202494k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $93,694 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 — Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand14,840$42,380
Home Health and Personal Care Aides12,030$30,380
Registered Nurses10,860$101,440
Stockers and Order Fillers9,880$38,950
Fast Food and Counter Workers9,110$29,090
Retail Salespersons9,060$32,310

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 Emmaus, PA, the city containing this ZIP code.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 57% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.6%
Top 29% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
56.8%
Top 36% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Emmaus HSEast Penn SD2,84215.7
Seven Generations CS · charterSeven Generations CS49713.132%59%
Lincoln El SchEast Penn SD37613.043%58%
Jefferson El SchEast Penn SD26812.837%52%

35.3% 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 Pennsylvania’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 $1,360 takes 17% 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
17.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,360
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$315,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.37Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.8%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3317,851Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$86$1,360Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$22,508$315,700Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.4%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate1.9%Bottom 8%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
34/ 100
Ranks 4142 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 0.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
3
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.3
Bottom 11% nationally
Year over year
−97%
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 Emmaus, PA, 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 86°F and January a low of 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.4 inches, including 33.1 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 ALLENTOWN INTL AP, 9.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation47.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall33.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing45°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

81 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, heat wave, lightning, strong wind, inland flooding, tornado, ice storm, drought, hail, wildfire, avalanche.

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 47 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Philadelphia IntlPHL47 mi12,000 ft
Newark Liberty IntlEWR70 mi9,999 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT71 mi10,001 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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Area Score
72
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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)
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 29, 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.

18049 vs Emmaus

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

18049
Emmaus
Median household income
$93,694
vs
$83,917
Per capita income
$48,795
vs
$44,764
Population density
1,263/sq mi
vs
4,107/sq mi
Median home value
$315,700
vs
$266,000
Median gross rent
$1,360
vs
$1,389
Homeownership rate
71.8%
vs
64.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
39.8%
vs
32.1%
Poverty rate
6.3%
vs
7.3%
Median age
41.8
vs
39.1

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.