53589Stoughton, Wisconsin

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 53589.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 9% of 6,210 published ZIP areas79
SchoolsTop 46% of 4,422 published ZIP areas55
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 6,685 published ZIP areas94
Climate6204th of 6,789 published ZIP areas57
Physical resilienceTop 2% of 6,709 published ZIP areas96
AccessTop 44% of 6,791 published ZIP areas94
Economic stabilityTop 21% of 6,742 published ZIP areas75
The quick read

53589 ranks in the top 9% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.0% and median household income of $96,226.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 53589 in the top 2% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
19,550
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$96,226
Top 22% nationally
Density
230/sq mi
85.0 sq mi of land
Median age
44.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Stoughton
Wisconsin
Metro area
Madison, WI
Nearest major airport
MSN
16 mi · Dane County Rgnl/Truax Fld
Median home value
$341,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.0% is lower than 96% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 331,978 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 ±$9,065$96,226Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,197$54,176Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.1%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.5 minBottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.1%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment331,978Top 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.6%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 33%June 2026
Labor force342,216Top 16%June 2026
Labor force participation67.6%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,990Top 36%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$58,080Top 22%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.0%Bottom 4%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202496k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $96,226 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 — Madison, WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses10,650$101,190
Fast Food and Counter Workers9,180$29,820
Home Health and Personal Care Aides8,360$37,220
Retail Salespersons8,330$35,830
Cashiers7,960$34,550
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand7,130$44,190

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 Stoughton, WI, the city containing this ZIP code.

34% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
34.1%
Bottom 42% in Wisconsin
Reading proficiency
36.8%
Top 47% in Wisconsin
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Stoughton HighStoughton Area School District8349.8
River Bluff MiddleStoughton Area School District56912.422%37%
Fox Prairie ElementaryStoughton Area School District44314.339%42%
Sandhill ElementaryStoughton Area School District41114.240%35%
Kegonsa ElementaryStoughton Area School District30414.541%31%
SASD 4KStoughton Area School District17419.3

26.9% 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 $1,148 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,148
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$341,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.54Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.7%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4098,962Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$47$1,148Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,436$341,000Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.3%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.1%Bottom 28%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

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 12°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.1 inches, including 51.8 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MADISON DANE RGNL AP, 16.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation37.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall51.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low12°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing52°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 and hail.

HailModerate
TornadoModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, inland flooding, winter weather, strong wind, lightning, landslide, ice storm, earthquake, 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 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dane County Rgnl/Truax FldMSN16 mi9,006 ft
Wittman RgnlOSH80 mi8,002 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD94 mi11,245 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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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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
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 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.

53589 vs Stoughton

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

53589
Stoughton
Median household income
$96,226
vs
$79,551
Per capita income
$54,176
vs
$44,915
Population density
230/sq mi
vs
2,115/sq mi
Median home value
$341,000
vs
$293,500
Median gross rent
$1,148
vs
$1,157
Homeownership rate
75.7%
vs
66.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
40.1%
vs
39.3%
Poverty rate
6.1%
vs
7.1%
Median age
44.8
vs
39.9

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.