ZIP code 17981

ZIP 17981 is a small town in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, with 2,619 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #848 of 1,833 ranked by population — larger than 53% of them. The median age here is 44.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in ZIP 17981 earn a median of $70,789 a year, 9.9% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 9.5% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 17981 is valued at $85,000, 72% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $829 a month, 41% below the national figure, or roughly $9,948 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 1.2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 78.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 17981 is tabulated inside Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, one of 52 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,833 across Pennsylvania. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 17981 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 17981 reports a median household income of $70,789, 5% above the $67,281 county median, and close to the $70,000 typical PA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $85,000, 26% below the county figure and 55% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $829 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Pennsylvania charges 6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 17981 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 17981 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.