ZIP code 38125

ZIP 38125 is a small city in Shelby County, Tennessee, with 42,793 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #29 of 638 ranked by population — larger than 95% of them. The median age here is 33.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 38125 earn a median of $83,184 a year, 5.9% above the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 11.1% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 38125 is valued at $230,400, 24.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,440 a month, 2.4% above the national figure, or roughly $17,280 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 52% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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 38125 is tabulated inside Shelby County, Tennessee, one of 38 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 638 across Tennessee. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 38125 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 38125 reports a median household income of $83,184, 45% above the $57,500 county median, and 41% above the $59,143 typical TN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $230,400, 21% above the county figure and 18% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,440 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Tennessee charges 7% statewide, and local governments overlapping 38125 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 38125 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.