AreaProfile

53146New Berlin, Wisconsin

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 53146.

73
Area Score
Top 10% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 11% of 6,210 published ZIP areas77
SchoolsTop 24% of 4,422 published ZIP areas72
Growth4510th of 5,428 published ZIP areas30
Housing affordabilityTop 13% of 6,685 published ZIP areas98
Climate5507th of 6,789 published ZIP areas61
Physical resilienceTop 3% of 6,709 published ZIP areas96
Access6174th of 6,791 published ZIP areas66
Economic stabilityTop 39% of 6,742 published ZIP areas66
The quick read

53146 ranks in the top 11% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.3% and median household income of $110,035.

Residential permitting has slowed: 22 units authorized over the past twelve months, 24% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 53146 in the top 3% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
7,285
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$110,035
Top 13% nationally
Density
398/sq mi
18.3 sq mi of land
Median age
48.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
New Berlin
Wisconsin
Metro area
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Nearest major airport
MSN
61 mi · Dane County Rgnl/Truax Fld
Median home value
$346,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 91% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.3% over the past year, to 20,424 employed residents.

43% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$19,912$110,035Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,691$56,015Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.9%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.8 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher43.0%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment20,424Bottom 20%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.3%Top 24%June 2026
Labor force21,120Bottom 19%June 2026
Labor force participation58.5%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,440Top 48%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,160Top 48%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 9%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024110k83k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $110,035 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 — Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides30,090$37,020
Registered Nurses22,400$97,360
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand19,810$44,840
Retail Salespersons18,850$34,410
Fast Food and Counter Workers17,490$28,440
Cashiers15,050$30,400

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 New Berlin, WI, the city containing this ZIP code.

58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 40% 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
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
58.1%
Top 13% in Wisconsin
Reading proficiency
40.5%
Top 39% in Wisconsin
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
New Berlin West Middle/HighNew Berlin School District1,03615.057%37%
Poplar Creek ElementaryNew Berlin School District51414.760%48%

18.5% 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 Wisconsin’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 $1,263 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
13.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,263
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$346,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.15Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate96.4%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3553,040Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$548$1,263Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,874$346,100Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.8%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.0%Bottom 9%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
30/ 100
Ranks 4510 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 0.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
22
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.5
Bottom 17% nationally
Year over year
−24%
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 New Berlin, WI, 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 82°F and January a low of 17°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.6 inches, including 48.7 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 MILWAUKEE MITCHELL AP, 12.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation34.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall48.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°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

96 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate

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

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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 61 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dane County Rgnl/Truax FldMSN61 mi9,006 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD70 mi11,245 ft
Wittman RgnlOSH73 mi8,002 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
73
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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.

53146 vs New Berlin

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

53146
New Berlin
Median household income
$110,035
vs
$101,091
Per capita income
$56,015
vs
$56,460
Population density
398/sq mi
vs
1,106/sq mi
Median home value
$346,100
vs
$365,700
Median gross rent
$1,263
vs
$1,426
Homeownership rate
96.4%
vs
76.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
43.0%
vs
47.3%
Poverty rate
6.9%
vs
4.1%
Median age
48.9
vs
45.2

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.