78552Harlingen, Texas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 78552.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 22% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5294th of 6,210 published ZIP areas36
Schools2675th of 4,422 published ZIP areas43
GrowthTop 38% of 5,428 published ZIP areas57
Housing affordabilityTop 16% of 6,685 published ZIP areas97
ClimateTop 44% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilience5755th of 6,709 published ZIP areas21
Access3884th of 6,791 published ZIP areas90
Economic stability5978th of 6,742 published ZIP areas33
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 6.5% and the Opportunity signal places 78552 in the bottom 15%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 19% of median household income and the median home is 2.4 times it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, cold wave and hail.

At a glance

Population
42,332
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$69,811
Bottom 47% nationally
Density
881/sq mi
48.0 sq mi of land
Median age
33.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Harlingen
Texas
Metro area
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
Nearest major airport
HRL
6 mi · Valley Intl
Median home value
$169,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.5% is lower than 5% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 29,635 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,495$69,811Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,836$29,015Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.6%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.2 minBottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.0%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment29,635Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.0%Bottom 49%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 49%June 2026
Labor force31,681Bottom 32%June 2026
Labor force participation60.2%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$47,110Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$36,490Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.2%Top 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.5%Top 5%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202470k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $69,811 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 — Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides21,990$23,500
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,570$22,500
Customer Service Representatives4,880$38,350
Retail Salespersons3,820$27,780
General and Operations Managers3,440$75,350
Cashiers3,420$26,250

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 Harlingen, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.1%
Bottom 41% in Texas
Reading proficiency
35.9%
Bottom 38% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HARLINGEN H S - SOUTHHARLINGEN CISD2,01914.1
MOISES VELA MIDDLEHARLINGEN CISD76113.437%32%
GUTIERREZ MIDDLEHARLINGEN CISD74712.432%37%
DR HESIQUIO RODRIGUEZ ELHARLINGEN CISD67418.227%37%
IDEA HARLINGEN ACADEMY · charterIDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS65121.745%45%
IDEA HARLINGEN COLLEGE PREPARATORY · charterIDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS45713.4
JUBILEE HARLINGEN · charterJUBILEE ACADEMIES37717.114%25%
WILSON ELHARLINGEN CISD37314.937%35%

73.4% 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 Texas’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 $1,113 takes 19% 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
19.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,113
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$169,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.43Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.3%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±60515,840Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$112$1,113Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,303$169,300Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.1%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.3%Top 39%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
57/ 100
Top 38% 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 17% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
336
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.7
Top 33% nationally
Year over year
−0%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
16.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Harlingen, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 96°F and January a low of 50°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 24.0 inches.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HARLINGEN RIO GRANDE AP, 6.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation24.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low50°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing26°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

21 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, cold wave and hail.

Cold waveModerate
HurricaneElevated
HailModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, ice storm, inland flooding, strong wind, winter weather, tornado, wildfire, drought, coastal flooding, earthquake, 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.

Cameron 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 6.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.0 per 100,000 residents in Cameron County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.1
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 Cameron 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 78552 rather than 78552 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 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Valley IntlHRL6 mi9,400 ft
Laredo IntlLRD141 mi8,743 ft
Victoria RgnlVCT191 mi9,111 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
52
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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

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.

78552 vs Harlingen

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

78552
Harlingen
Median household income
$69,811
vs
$53,645
Per capita income
$29,015
vs
$26,512
Population density
881/sq mi
vs
1,790/sq mi
Median home value
$169,300
vs
$140,600
Median gross rent
$1,113
vs
$928
Homeownership rate
75.3%
vs
56.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
24.0%
vs
22.6%
Poverty rate
21.6%
vs
25.1%
Median age
33.4
vs
33.4

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.