ZIP code 38556

ZIP 38556 is a mid-size town in Fentress County, Tennessee, with 12,531 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #185 of 638 ranked by population — larger than 71% of them. The median age here is 50.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 38556 earn a median of $42,819 a year, 45.5% below the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 25.8% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 38556 is valued at $147,300, 51.5% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $587 a month, 58.3% below the national figure, or roughly $7,044 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.5% 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 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 73.9% 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.

A median age of 50.1 puts ZIP 38556 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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 38556 is tabulated inside Fentress County, Tennessee, one of 5 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 638 across Tennessee. This is a mid-sized ZIP that covers a large share of its county's addresses. 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 38556 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 38556 reports a median household income of $42,819, 22% below the $55,136 county median, and 28% below the $59,143 typical TN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $147,300, 5% below the county figure and 25% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $587 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 38556 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 38556 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.