16801State College, Pennsylvania

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 16801.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 19% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 24% of 6,210 published ZIP areas68
SchoolsTop 5% of 4,422 published ZIP areas88
GrowthTop 18% of 5,428 published ZIP areas68
Housing affordability5684th of 6,685 published ZIP areas53
Climate4699th of 6,789 published ZIP areas63
Physical resilienceTop 12% of 6,709 published ZIP areas89
Access6423rd of 6,791 published ZIP areas56
Economic stability6271st of 6,742 published ZIP areas28
The quick read

16801 ranks in the top 24% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.4% and median household income of $61,836.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.7 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 25% of it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 16801 in the top 12% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
40,774
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,836
Bottom 33% nationally
Density
1,315/sq mi
31.0 sq mi of land
Median age
27.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
State College
Pennsylvania
Metro area
State College, PA
Nearest major airport
MDT
70 mi · Harrisburg Intl
Median home value
$414,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 52% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 5.6% over the past year, to 16,597 employed residents.

66% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 95% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,540$61,836Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,057$42,464Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate27.1%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.6 minBottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher65.6%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,597Bottom 13%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.0%Top 25%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)5.6%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force17,364Bottom 13%June 2026
Labor force participation57.2%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,190Bottom 28%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,220Bottom 39%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 31%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Bottom 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,836 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 — State College, PA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,320$27,790
Retail Salespersons1,710$29,240
General and Operations Managers1,470$91,120
Office Clerks, General1,460$43,920
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,380$29,950
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners1,360$35,850

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 State College, PA, the city containing this ZIP code.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 67% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.6%
Top 12% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
66.8%
Top 15% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
State College Area HSState College Area SD2,40211.6
Mount Nittany MSState College Area SD75211.827%62%
Mount Nittany El SchState College Area SD41312.958%68%
Spring Creek El SchState College Area SD36013.878%82%
Young Scholars of Central PA CS · charterYoung Scholars of Central PA CS3217.837%56%
Easterly Parkway El SchState College Area SD31410.156%61%
Corl Street El SchState College Area SD25011.972%83%
Centre Learning Community CS · charterCentre Learning Community CS6713.410%50%
Nittany Valley CS · charterNittany Valley CS517.3

24.6% 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 $1,264 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,264
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$414,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.70Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate43.2%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±61419,271Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,264Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,208$414,600Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.5%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.3%Top 46%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
68/ 100
Top 18% 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.

99% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
180
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.4
Top 36% nationally
Year over year
+5900%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
98.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for State College, 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 81°F and January a low of 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.5 inches, including 43.8 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station STATE COLLEGE, 1.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall43.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
HurricaneModerate

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

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.

Centre County records 1.7 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 7.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.9 per 100,000 residents in Centre County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.8
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 Centre 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 16801 rather than 16801 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 70 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Harrisburg IntlMDT70 mi10,001 ft
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE90 mi8,222 ft
Elmira/Corning RgnlELM107 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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Area Score
69
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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.

16801 vs State College

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

16801
State College
Median household income
$61,836
vs
$45,424
Per capita income
$42,464
vs
$24,746
Population density
1,315/sq mi
vs
8,967/sq mi
Median home value
$414,600
vs
$437,800
Median gross rent
$1,264
vs
$1,273
Homeownership rate
43.2%
vs
26.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
65.6%
vs
68.4%
Poverty rate
27.1%
vs
38.1%
Median age
27.9
vs
21.2

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.