ZIP code 43050: Mount Vernon

Drinking-water compliance

A health-based violation is a contaminant above its limit or a treatment rule not followed; monitoring, reporting and public-notice violations are paperwork. Lead is the 90th-percentile result across sampled homes, not a reading at any one tap.

Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (Envirofacts, pulled September 2026), violations and lead and copper sampling for the system that serves most of this ZIP · EPA SDWIS (Envirofacts) · EPA ECHO

Byproducts and contaminants

TTHM

0 µg/L yearly mean in 2019, the last year in the file (limit 80); worst yearly mean 0, highest single sample 0; 39 samples from 2012 to 2019

HAA5

0 µg/L yearly mean in the last year sampled (limit 60); worst yearly mean 0, highest sample 0; 39 samples

Nitrate

not detected in 8 samples through 2019 (limit 10; nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants)

Arsenic

not detected in 4 samples (limit 10)

Solvents and fuels

benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, vinyl chloride not detected in 4 samples

Bacteria

4 of 1,921 routine tap samples (0.21%) tested positive for total coliform in 2012 to 2019, 0 of 241 in 2019; E. coli never found in the 4 tap samples tested for it. Coliform itself is a warning sign; E. coli means sewage or manure reached the water

Farm chemicals

atrazine, alachlor not detected in 3 samples

Metals

barium in 2 of 3 samples, highest 21 µg/L (limit 2,000); chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, thallium not detected in 3 samples

EPA's file stops at 2019; Ohio EPA's Drinking Water Watch has newer results. Byproducts are judged on running yearly averages at each sampling site, so one high sample is not a violation. Nitrate and arsenic are measured where water enters the pipes.

Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019 (TTHM, HAA5 and coliform from distribution-system samples of Mount Vernon City; nitrate, arsenic, radionuclides, solvents, herbicides and metals from the entry points of the same system); non-detects counted as zero

PFAS

UCMR 5

2 samples in 2024 at the entry point to the distribution system: none of the 29 PFAS detected

Ohio EPA 2020

1 plant tested (latest 2020-10): nothing detected for the six PFAS tested

Ohio EPA latest

1 plant sampled by Ohio EPA, most recently 2026-04 (Ohio EPA statewide sampling status map)

Lithium: not detected in 2 UCMR 5 samples at Mount Vernon City (the method reports from 9 µg/L). Lithium is unregulated; EPA's draft health reference level is 10 µg/L, and it occurs naturally in deep groundwater, so well systems in the northwest run highest.

PFAS are the forever chemicals from firefighting foam, plating shops and non-stick coatings. One sample above 4 ng/L is not a violation; compliance is judged on running annual averages, and systems are adding carbon filters ahead of the 2029 deadline. Results are for water leaving the plant, not your tap.

Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026) and Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling 2019 to 2021 and its current status map, for the system that serves most of this ZIP; EPA SDWIS record OH4200812; results in nanograms per litre (parts per trillion) · Ohio EPA PFAS

Lead at the tap

Latest period

0 ppb in the sampling period ending 2025-12

Record

4 sampling periods since 2016, none above 10 ppb

Service lines

6,728 inventoried: 0 lead, 242 galvanized needing replacement, 4,267 unknown, 2,219 not lead (reported all required service line types)

Children: the Ohio Department of Health lists this ZIP as high-risk for childhood lead exposure, mostly from old paint and soil, so every child living here should get a blood lead test at ages 1 and 2 (Medicaid covers it, and doctors are required to order it).

Housing age: 46% of the homes here were built before 1960 and 29% before 1940, when lead service lines, lead solder and lead paint were common; 68% predate 1980 (Census ACS 2020 to 2024).

Systems sample taps in the homes most likely to have lead pipes or solder; the 90th-percentile figure means nine in ten sampled homes were at or below it. Lead comes from the service line and the house plumbing, not the source water, so a low system result does not clear an old house. The action level drops from 15 to 10 ppb in 2027, and every lead line must be replaced within ten years of that.

Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System lead and copper 90th-percentile results (Envirofacts) and EPA's service line inventory dashboard (2026 Q2), for Mount Vernon City (OH4200812), the system that serves most of this ZIP · ODH childhood lead testing · ODH high-risk ZIP list (CCBH PDF) · Ohio EPA lead and copper · H2Ohio

Fluoride and treatment

Treatment on file: chlorine dioxide, coagulation and settling, lime softening, sand or media filtration.

The health department reports 0.27 mg/L of natural fluoride for Mount Vernon City, below the 0.7 mg/L target.

Measured fluoride: 0.34 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2018 (below the 0.7 mg/L target); samples ran from 0.24 to 0.34 mg/L across 3 samples in 2012 to 2019 (EPA compliance monitoring). Natural fluoride in Ohio well water runs from a trace to over 2 mg/L in parts of the northwest.

The health department counts 28.7% of Knox County residents on community water as receiving fluoridated water.

Ohio law (ORC 6109.20, 1969) makes systems serving 5,000 or more people fluoridate unless the water already carries 0.8 mg/L naturally or the community exempted itself by ordinance or referendum in the months after the law passed; smaller systems choose for themselves. The treatment list is what each system registered with EPA and can lag a plant upgrade.

Source: CDC My Water's Fluoride, fluoridation status of each system as reported by the Ohio Department of Health; EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System treatment table for Mount Vernon City (OH4200812); EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring, 2012 to 2019; Ohio Department of Health fluoridation report (DataOhio) for the county share · EPA SDWIS search

Algal toxins

Mount Vernon City draws groundwater, which Ohio does not monitor for algal toxins; blooms are a surface-water problem.

Source: Ohio EPA public water system harmful algal bloom monitoring (HAB data and map, DrinkingWater/HAB service, fetched 2026-09-09), total microcystins by ELISA in raw and treated water, for the system that serves most of this ZIP · Ohio EPA HAB information for public water systems

Groundwater

Under the surface

sand and gravel with fine layers, part of the Kokosing Buried Valley Aquifer (buried valley setting); wells there yield > 500 gallons a minute, deposits > 100 ft thick

Bedrock

Logan and Black Hand undivided, yielding 5 - 25 gpm to a well

Setting

Sand and Gravel; water table 5-15 ft down, 10+ in/yr recharge, sandy loam soil (hydrogeologic setting 7D); pesticide index 220

Karst

286 karst and spring points in ODNR's inventory inside the ZIP (0 field-verified), 1.8 per square mile

Well logs

3,968 drilled wells on file (134.1 per 1,000 residents), median 150 ft deep, 15 gallons a minute median test yield, water 60 ft down

Aquifers

67% of wells in bedrock, 33% in sand, gravel and other unconsolidated material; typical well drilled 1995, 1,475 since 2000; uses: Domestic 3,547, Monitor 110

Wellhead protection

4% of this ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA source water protection areas for 13 public water systems (Mount Vernon City PWS, Grandview Mhp A PWS, Grandview Mhp B), 1% inside inner management zones, the ground a well draws from within a year; the largest, Mount Vernon City PWS, is rated high susceptibility in a buried valley setting

Geology

26% of the ZIP is a sensitive geologic setting, where thin or sandy cover leaves the aquifer open to what soaks in from the surface; nearest verified sinkhole 23.2 mi away (Ohio EPA and ODNR Geological Survey)

Injection wells

20 Class V injection wells on Ohio EPA's books inside this ZIP (17 active): 18 large septic, 1 cleanup injection, 1 vehicle waste; these put fluids underground above or into drinking water aquifers

Water table

K-1 OH monitoring well (ODNR), 1.1 mi away: water 5.7 ft below ground on 2026-08-12; averaged 5.6 ft in 2015 to 2019 and 6.1 ft over the latest year, so the table is running about 0.5 ft lower; range 1.9 to 10.6 ft over 4,085 readings since 2015

Nitrate risk

EPA researchers put the chance that a public water system in the Delano Run-Kokosing River subwatershed exceeds the nitrate limit at 27% if it draws on groundwater and 38% if it draws on rivers or lakes, judged from land use, geology and past results (EnviroAtlas nitrate violation index; the typical Ohio subwatershed scores 23% for groundwater and 39% for surface water)

Quality monitoring

Ohio EPA's nearest ambient groundwater monitoring well is Mt. Vernon Wellfield (Knox County), 1.2 mi away: 98 ft deep in sand and gravel (Kokosing Bur Vly aquifer); wells there yield over 500 gallons a minute; sampled every 18 months. 12 active wells within 15 mi

Vulnerability rates how easily a spill at the surface reaches the aquifer, not whether anything has. Well logs include abandoned and replaced wells, so counts overstate wells in use; a private well owner is the only one who tests it.

Source: ODNR Division of Geological Survey, Groundwater Vulnerability (DRASTIC) map (polygon at the ZIP's population-weighted center), karst feature inventory, and the Ohio water well log database (logs inside the ZIP boundary) · ODNR Geological Survey · Ohio EPA GIS services · USGS water data

Aquifer exposure

Karst

no karst-prone bedrock under the population center; no mapped sinkhole inside the ZIP; nearest verified sinkhole 23.2 mi from the center

Wellhead protection

4% of the ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA source water protection areas for 13 public water systems (Mount Vernon City PWS, Grandview Mhp A PWS, Grandview Mhp B), 1% inside inner management zones, the ground a well draws from within a year; the largest, Mount Vernon City PWS, is rated high susceptibility in a buried valley setting

Vulnerability index

DRASTIC 200 (ODNR; higher means a spill at the surface reaches the aquifer more easily)

Sensitive settings are outwash plains, buried valleys, karst and shallow bedrock, mapped statewide by Ohio EPA for siting decisions. Exposure is not contamination: it says how quickly a spill, a failing tank or heavy manure would reach the water table, not whether one has.

Source: Ohio EPA Sensitive Geologic Settings and karst geology layers (geology/Geology), ODNR Geological Survey karst and spring points, Ohio EPA source water protection areas (DrinkingWater/SWAP); shares by ZIP boundary overlay, karst by a point query at the population-weighted center · Ohio EPA geology layers · Ohio EPA source water protection (SWAP) · ODNR Geological Survey

Sewage treatment

Size

0.9 million gallons a day design flow

Compliance

2 of the last 12 quarters with a violation; no open violation; 5 effluent limit exceedances in 3 years

Other discharge permits: 6 facilities inside this ZIP other than sewage plants hold a Clean Water Act permit (factories, water plants, quarries, package plants, storm water); 1 facility-quarters with a violation in the last three years; largest: Amity Wwtp (0.021 MGD); Brandon Wwtp (0.016 MGD).

Sewage sludge: 85 farm fields covering 2,635 acres inside this ZIP are permitted for spreading treated biosolids, mostly from Mount Vernon Wwtp (2,305 acres), Johnstown Wwtp (226 acres), Little Jelloway Creek Wwtp (65 acres) (Ohio EPA). Biosolids carry nutrients and, increasingly under scrutiny, PFAS.

Sludge source: 2 permitted biosolids generators are inside this ZIP; nearest Mount Vernon WWTP, 1 mi away (a major plant); 5 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA).

State water loans: 1 project inside this ZIP has borrowed $2.3 million from Ohio EPA's revolving loan funds since 2025 (1 sewer, storm water and runoff project for $2.3 million). Largest: WWTP Upgrades (Mount Vernon, 2025, $2.3 million). Below-market loans are how most Ohio treatment plants and water mains get rebuilt.

Sewer planning: 93% of it is assigned to Knox County as the designated sewage management agency under Ohio's Clean Water Act section 208 plan (generic prescriptions); 4 agencies share the ZIP. The 208 plan decides who may build and extend sewers.

Stormwater: 6% of this ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA's regulated MS4 areas, mostly the City of Mount Vernon storm sewer system; the towns, townships and counties that own those storm sewers hold a stormwater permit and must control what runs off streets and parking lots (2020 to 2030 designation). 19 sites with an address in this ZIP hold their own industrial stormwater permits (Republic Services Mount Vernon Transfer Facility, Ariel Corp, Ellis Brothers Concrete Inc Plt 1 and others) (EPA Facility Finder).

Plants inside this ZIP: City of Mount Vernon (5 MGD, major); Little Jelloway Wwtp (0.9 MGD).

Where a home's sewage actually goes depends on the sewer district, and rural homes are on septic systems the county health department permits; the nearest plant is a proxy. Violations range from paperwork to raw discharges.

Source: EPA Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), Clean Water Act NPDES facilities with a POTW component in Ohio; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center. Compliance data lag about a quarter.; other Clean Water Act permit holders inside the ZIP from the same service · EPA ECHO · EPA CSO inventory · Ohio EPA GIS services · EPA Facility Finder

Stream health

Uses failing

aquatic life 31% of the land, recreation (bacteria) 86%, fish consumption 0%

Causes listed

bacteria (pathogens) (86%), nutrients (30%), sediment and silt (20%)

Cleanup plans

0% of the land is under a TMDL pollution budget

Watersheds here: Delano Run-Kokosing River (not supporting); Dry Creek (fully supporting).

Fish advisories (Ohio EPA): Kokosing River (County Road 13/Green Valley Road (Mount Vernon) to mouth (Walholding River)): rock bass one meal a month, smallmouth bass one meal a month (mercury). Statewide, every other fish is one meal a week because of mercury.

Nearest stream assessment (Ohio EPA): Kokosing R. Upst. Mt. Vernon Wwtp on the Kokosing River, 0.8 mi away, draining 250 square miles: full attainment of its exceptional warmwater use; fish IBI 58 of 60 (2022); bug ICI 44 of 60 (2022); habitat QHEI 82 of 100. 22 assessed sites inside the ZIP, 8 within 3 miles, 44 within 10. Scores above about 40 (IBI), 36 (ICI) and 60 (QHEI) mean a healthy warmwater stream.

Stream designations (Ohio EPA water quality standards): 119.5 miles of designated streams cross this ZIP: 59.3 mi warmwater habitat, 38.8 mi exceptional warmwater and coldwater habitat, 17.8 mi exceptional warmwater habitat, 3.7 mi coldwater habitat. Nearest specially protected stream: the Kokosing river, 0.1 mi away, an Outstanding State Water; 18% of the ZIP lies within a mile of such a stream, where new discharges face the strictest antidegradation review. Exceptional and coldwater streams are the state's healthiest; modified and limited-resource waters are channelized or ditched.

Proposed for 2026: Ohio EPA's pending water quality standards rewrite would add 11.1 miles of stream in this ZIP to the antidegradation tiers: the Kokosing River as Outstanding State Water for recreation (Armstrong run (RM 28.04) to the mouth); the Little Schenck Creek as Superior High Quality Water. Listing raises the bar for any new or expanded discharge.

PFAS in the river (Ohio EPA large river survey): at Mohican R. At Tiverton @ Twp. Rd. 365, 16.1 mi away, the water carried 96.29 ng/L of total PFAS (PFOA 2, PFOS 1.5 ng/L); fish fillets held 29.3 ng/g in bluegill (PFOS 9.1 in bluegill). Drinking water limits are 4 ng/L for PFOA and PFOS; river water is not drinking water, but treatment plants that draw from it start from these numbers.

Farm chemicals (USGS estimate, 2018): farms in Knox County used about 163 metric tons of pesticide active ingredient, 308 kg per square mile, 39th of Ohio's 88 counties. Largest: glyphosate 56 t, atrazine 27 t, metolachlor 19 t, acetochlor 10 t, simazine 6 t. Atrazine, the corn herbicide, is the pesticide that most often shows up in Ohio tap water after spring rains; this county used 27 t of it.

Farms (2022 Census of Agriculture): 1,303 farms work 184,283 acres of Knox County, with 38.1% of its land in cropland, 141 acres to a farm. 19,481 cattle, 34,726 hogs, 155,303 laying hens, 1,589,933 broilers, 50 turkeys; 45,347 acres of corn and 48,674 of soybeans. Sales $241 million, 61% from animals and animal products. Manure and fertilizer from farms like these carry the phosphorus and nitrogen behind Ohio's algae and nitrate problems; withheld figures protect individual farms.

A watershed unit fails when any sampled stream in it fails; ditches in flat farm country fail on habitat and nutrients, city creeks on bacteria and sediment. Ohio's own report is at epa.ohio.gov; the EPA link on each unit's report page has the sampling detail.

Source: EPA ATTAINS (Ohio EPA 2024 Integrated Report), watershed assessment units overlaid on the ZIP boundary in an equal-area projection; shares are of the ZIP's land area · EPA ATTAINS · Ohio integrated report · Ohio sport fish advisory · Ohio EPA advisory map

Watershed

• Walhonding95% of residentsDrains to the Ohio River
• Licking5% of residentsDrains to the Ohio River

ZIP codes and subbasins do not share boundaries, so this ZIP is split between them.

H2Ohio: nearest project Clear Fork Mohican River Wetland Restoration, funded 2024, contracting, 17.7 mi away: The project’s restoration will include the creation of 17 acres of riparian forest and floodplain wetland habitat to reduce erosion and treat water along the Cl...; 0 within 5 miles, 0 within 15. H2Ohio pays for wetlands, farm practices and lead line work to cut the nutrients behind Lake Erie's algae.

Source water: 19% of this ZIP drains to the river intake of Newark City PWS and sits inside its Ohio EPA source water protection area.

Watershed grants: 3 state or federal runoff projects inside this ZIP (2 SWIF, 1 Section 319); nearest "CA&C Rail Depot Stormwater Management Demonstration" by City of Mount Vernon (stormwater management, SWIF), 0.2 mi away; 3 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA project lists: Section 319 and GLRI through fiscal 2023, SWIF through 2017).

Road salt: 1 state chloride-reduction grant inside this ZIP; nearest went to City of Mount Vernon (equipment, 2026-2027), 0.4 mi away; 2 in Knox County. H2Ohio pays for brine makers, calibrated spreaders and covered salt barns so less chloride reaches streams and wells.

The population center sits in the Delano Run-Kokosing River subwatershed; its water runs on through Indianfield Run-Kokosing River, then Brush Run-Kokosing River, then Dutch Run-Walhonding River.

In 2015 Knox County drew about 11 million gallons a day of fresh water (USGS): 5.5 million for public supply (100% from wells, 34,000 people served at 82 gallons a person a day at home), 0.5 million for irrigation, 0.8 million for mining; 27,000 residents drew their own well water.

EnviroAtlas, Delano Run-Kokosing River: 100 to 200 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program; 4,626 acres of grain crops; 76 miles of streams (2.3 per square mile); water use of 1.2 million gallons a day for homes and 9 thousand for farms; 41 inches of rain and snow a year; 10.6 kg of nitrogen per hectare falling from the air each year; farm nitrogen of 1.7 kg per hectare a year as manure and 15.2 kg as synthetic fertilizer; 3% of the farmland sits on drained hydric soils; potentially restorable wetlands on farmland cover 8% of the subwatershed; 6.5% of the land is paved or roofed; 50% of the stream banks keep natural cover (EPA EnviroAtlas national metrics, 2010s vintages).

Stream permits: 48% of this ZIP drains to streams Ohio EPA rates high quality, where a project that fills, pipes or crosses a stream needs an individual Ohio EPA 401 water quality review; 40% drains toward high-quality waters farther down and might qualify for the Army Corps' blanket nationwide permits after a field screening and 11% can use those nationwide permits outright (Ohio EPA 401 nationwide permit eligibility map).

Source: USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset (HUC-8 subbasins by resident share, HUC-12 subwatershed at the population center) · 2020 census blocks · USGS watershed boundaries · EPA EnviroAtlas · Ohio EPA 401 map · USGS county water use 2015 · ODNR H2Ohio projects · ODNR Lake Erie Coastal Management Area · Ohio EPA source water protection (SWAP) · Ohio EPA nine-element plans · Ohio EPA 319, GLRI and SWIF project lists · Ohio EPA chloride reduction grants · NOAA Lake Erie water levels

Homes and income

Household income

$64,108 median

Income spread

16% of households earn under $25,000 a year, 30% $100,000 or more and 6.6% $200,000 or more

Rent

$967 a month, median gross

Owner-occupied

68% of 12,335 occupied homes; 63% of owners carry a mortgage

Typical home built

1964

Value spread

9% of owner-occupied homes are worth under $100,000 and 6.6% $500,000 or more; income per person $35,268 a year

Moved in

the typical owner moved in in 2009, the typical renter in 2018

Median age

41.3 years

Commute

22 minutes each way on average, 19% of commuters travel 45 minutes or more, 13% work from home

Housing stock

78% single-family detached, 7% in buildings of 5 or more units, 2.9% mobile homes

Vacancy

8.4% of 13,471 housing units are vacant: 2.3% for rent, 2.0% held for seasonal or occasional use, 3.8% other, such as homes held off the market, in probate or abandoned

Owner costs

16% of owners with a mortgage and 11% of owners without one spend 30% or more of income on housing

Evictions

3.6 eviction filings a year per 100 renter households in 2016 to 2018, 2.35 ending in a judgement (about 137 filings a year; Eviction Lab)

Fair market rent

$1,070 a month for a two-bedroom (one-bedroom $870, three-bedroom $1,380): HUD's fiscal 2026 small-area fair market rent, the benchmark for housing vouchers in the Knox County area

Tax returns

13,380 returns for 2022 averaging $74,862 of adjusted gross income; 28% reported under $25,000 and 3% reported $200,000 or more; 15% claimed the earned income credit and 31% were filed by people 60 or older (IRS)

Subsidized housing

6 tax-credit (LIHTC) properties with 275 low-income units, newest placed in service 2020; 5 HUD-assisted multifamily properties with 210 assisted units (Section 8 and similar contracts). Housing vouchers used in private rentals are not counted

Banks

9 full-service bank branches from 8 banks inside this ZIP (FDIC); 2 credit union branches from 1 credit union (NCUA)

Strain

47% of renters pay 30% or more of income in rent; 5.3% of households have no vehicle; the median renter spends 28.3% of income on rent; the median owner with a mortgage spends 18.5% of income on housing costs

Five-year survey averages centered on 2022; small ZIPs carry wide margins of error, and owner-estimated values run below sale prices in a rising market.

Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates by ZIP Code Tabulation Area; Eviction Lab (Princeton) tract estimates 2016 to 2018, weighted to the ZIP; HUD fiscal 2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents; IRS Statistics of Income ZIP data, tax year 2022; Mapping Inequality (University of Richmond), HOLC maps 1935 to 1940; HUD eGIS open data for subsidized housing; FDIC BankFind branch locations; NCUA credit union branch list, March 2026 · Census ACS · Eviction Lab · HUD data · IRS ZIP statistics · Mapping Inequality · HUD eGIS open data · FDIC BankFind · NCUA call report data

Houses and neighborhoods

Homes

8,506 one-family houses, 300 two-family houses, 75 three-family houses, 382 condominiums, 257 manufactured homes, 912 farmhouses; also 128 apartment buildings and 558 other residential parcels

Age

41% built before 1950, 69% before 1978 (1978: the year lead paint was banned for housing)

Size

median living area 1,494 sq ft; median lot 0.37 acres (condominiums left out)

Value

median appraised value $167,720 (tax year 2025): the county auditor's market value for property tax, not a sale price

Sales

377 sales in the 12 months to Sep 12, 2026 (median $238,500); 1,680 sales in 5 years (median $215,000, $154 a sq ft). Counted: sales the auditor marked valid or has not yet reviewed (sales marked not valid, and unreviewed ones under $10,000, are left out), single-parcel sales of homes, one per house (its newest)

Owners

63% owner-occupied (homes receiving the owner-occupancy tax credit); 10% company-owned

Neighborhoods

0 neighborhoods and 266 subdivisions (details load below)

Show neighborhoods and houses

The houses load when you search, pick a filter or press the button (the pack for this part of the state, a few megabytes). Zoomed in on the map, each house of this ZIP draws as a dot that follows the search and filters.

Source: county auditors' appraisal records: Knox County Auditor (as of Sep 12, 2026); Licking County Auditor (as of Sep 14, 2026); Morrow County Auditor (as of Sep 12, 2026); residential parcels placed in ZIPs by the atlas; owner names are not carried · Allen County Auditor · Ashland County Auditor · Auglaize County Auditor · Butler County Auditor · Champaign County Auditor · Clark County Auditor · Clinton County Auditor · Coshocton County Auditor · Crawford County Auditor · Fairfield County Auditor · Fayette County Auditor · Franklin County Auditor · Greene County Auditor · Guernsey County Auditor · Hardin County Auditor · Highland County Auditor · Hocking County Auditor · Holmes County Auditor · Jackson County Auditor · Knox County Auditor · Licking County Auditor · Logan County Auditor · Lorain County Auditor · Madison County Auditor · Marion County Auditor · Miami County Auditor · Montgomery County Auditor · Morrow County Auditor · Muskingum County Auditor · Perry County Auditor · Pickaway County Auditor · Richland County Auditor · Ross County Auditor · Stark County Auditor · Tuscarawas County Auditor · Union County Auditor · Wyandot County Auditor · OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels · Athens County subdivisions, town plats and additions (Athens County Auditor GIS) · Cincinnati Community Council Boundaries · Cincinnati Statistical Neighborhood Approximations (SNA), 2020 · Clark County recorded subdivision plats · Clermont County recorded subdivision plats · Cleveland Heights neighborhoods · Cleveland Statistical Planning Areas (SPAs) / neighborhoods · Columbus Communities · Columbus Community Planning Areas · Coshocton County subdivisions (recorded plats and town additions) · Dayton neighborhoods · Dublin Civic Associations · Franklin County recorded subdivision and condominium plats · Hamilton (Ohio) 17Strong neighborhoods · Lima neighborhood associations · Logan County subdivision and condominium plats · Madison County subdivisions (recorded plats) · Morgan County subdivision, addition and town plats · Muskingum County subdivision plats · Perry County subdivisions and town additions (recorded plat names on the county engineer's parcels) · Richland County subdivisions and condominiums (recorded plats, county GIS) · Sandusky neighborhoods · Stark County recorded allotment (subdivision) and condominium plats · Toledo neighborhood associations · Union County subdivision plats

Building permits

Mix

95 single-family houses, 304 units in buildings of five or more, 97 in duplexes and small buildings

Value

$86.9 million of construction at the value declared on the permits

By year

2016: 8, 2017: 19, 2018: 8, 2019: 8, 2020: 9, 2021: 3, 2022: 19, 2023: 270, 2024: 26, 2025: 126, 2026 through July: 36

Caveat

1 of the ten years had fewer than 12 months reported by the permit office; the Census Bureau estimates the missing months, so those counts are partly or wholly imputed

Survey counts are permits issued, not houses finished, and cover new residential construction only: additions, remodels, garages and commercial buildings are not in the survey. Values are the applicants' estimates. Where a city runs the building department for its township neighbours, the city's figure covers them too.

Source: Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, annual place files 2016 to 2025 (new privately owned residential units authorized), for the permit-issuing jurisdiction where most of this ZIP's residents live · Census building permits

Home prices

Five years

+62% from 2020 to 2025

Last year

+4% in 2025

Since 2000

prices stand at 2.4 times their 2000 level

Series

tracked since 1975

Zillow's typical home value here is $253K (2026-07), up 6% over the year, up 36% over five years and up 105% over ten. Typical asking rent $1,321 a month (2026-07).

On the market (Realtor.com, August 2026): median asking price $314,950 (up 1.7% in a year), $179 per square foot for a typical 1,897 sq ft listing; 59 active listings, 28 new this month; listings spend a median 54 days on the market (up 44% from a year earlier); 24% of listings have cut their price.

The index follows the same houses through repeat sales and refinance appraisals on conforming mortgages, so it measures price change rather than the price level (the Homes card has the median value). Consumer prices rose about 36% from 2015 to 2025, so a gain under 36% is a loss in real terms.

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index, annual five-digit ZIP all-transactions series (repeat sales and refinance appraisals of conforming-mortgage homes, developmental, not seasonally adjusted), latest release; Zillow Home Value Index (mid-tier, smoothed, seasonally adjusted) and Zillow Observed Rent Index by ZIP, Zillow Research · FHFA house price index · Zillow research data · Realtor.com data

Local taxes

Mount Vernon City 91% of residents

28.6 effective mills (33.7 gross); $2,005 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 16.6, improvements 1.9, emergency 6.8, inside millage 3.4.

Centerburg Local 3% of residents

21.4 effective mills (35.2 gross); $1,497 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 15.6, bonds 1.1, improvements 0.3, inside millage 4.4.

Municipal income tax

Mount Vernon 2% (57% of residents); township residents outside a city or village pay none. Charged on wages and business profits where you work and, after credits, where you live.

School district income tax

Mount Vernon City none (91% of residents), Centerburg Local 0.75% (3% of residents). Voted by the district and collected with the state income tax.

Sales tax

7.25% combined rate in Knox County: Ohio's 5.75% plus county and transit levies; this ZIP straddles counties or transit districts, so the rate depends on the address.

A mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable value, and taxable value is 35% of market value. Effective rates fall as values rise because Ohio holds most voted levies to the dollars first approved. County, municipal or township, library, park and vocational-school levies are added on the same bill and are not counted here.

Source: Ohio Department of Taxation, Aggregate Property Tax Rates by School District, tax year 2025 (composite DTE 515); weighted by the share of this ZIP's residents in each district; The Finder rate tables for municipal, school district and sales taxes, September 2026 · Ohio tax data series · The Finder

Who delivers the electricity

• AEP Ohio investor-owned82% of residentsAmerican Electric Power (AEP)
• The Energy Cooperative co-op15% of residentsBuckeye Power, Inc.
• Consolidated Cooperative (formerly Consolidated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) co-op3% of residentsBuckeye Power, Inc.

AEP Ohio outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 272 minutes (158 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 1.1 interruptions a year.

AEP Ohio standard service offer price, 2024: 19.33 cents per kWh, about $174 a month for the average home, for the 550,768 residential customers who have not chosen a supplier; the other 788,464 pay AEP Ohio 10.75 cents per kWh for delivery plus their supplier's price (EIA-861).

AEP Ohio solar and meters, 2024: 11,606 customers run net-metered solar (158.9 MW, 11,036 of them homes); 79% of its 1,541,883 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters, 21% drive-by automated reads (EIA-861).

The Energy Cooperative outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 243 minutes (113 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 1.6 interruptions a year.

The Energy Cooperative residential price, 2024: 16.88 cents per kWh, about $178 a month for the average home across 25,820 residential customers (EIA-861).

The Energy Cooperative solar and meters, 2024: no net-metered solar reported under its own name (Buckeye Power, the co-ops' generation cooperative, files one Ohio net-metering row: 3,058 systems, 32.6 MW in 2024); 100% of its 27,568 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters (EIA-861).

Consolidated Cooperative (formerly Consolidated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 354 minutes (87 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 1.2 interruptions a year.

Consolidated Cooperative (formerly Consolidated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) residential price, 2024: 16.11 cents per kWh, about $205 a month for the average home across 16,897 residential customers (EIA-861).

Consolidated Cooperative (formerly Consolidated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) solar and meters, 2024: 215 customers run net-metered solar (1.9 MW, 214 of them homes); 100% of its 19,272 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters (EIA-861).

Energy burden: households here spend an average 3.6% of income on electricity, gas and other fuels (about $2,607 a year against $72,220 of income); the 41% of households below 80% of the area median income spend 8.7%, and 30% of households fall in groups averaging 6% or more, the usual line for a high burden (DOE LEAD Tool, 2022 update, built from 2018 to 2022 survey data).

Source: PUCO certified territories via ODOT · HIFLD retail service territories (EIA Form 861) · 2020 census blocks · outage statistics from EIA-861 Reliability, 2024 with 2023 where a utility skipped a year (SAIDI and SAIFI, IEEE 1366) · residential prices from EIA-861 Sales to Ultimate Customers, net metering and advanced meters from the EIA-861 files of the same years · DOE LEAD Tool 2022 household energy burden by tract, apportioned into ZIPs by block population · PUCO electricity · ODOT territories service · EIA-861 · DOE LEAD Tool · HIFLD retail service territories

Natural gas here

64% of the 12,335 homes here heat with utility gas.

Utility gas 64%Electricity 18%Propane or LP 12%Oil, wood, other 6%

• Columbia Gas of Ohio regulated utility100% of residents, main companyNiSource Inc.

Territories overlap here: Ohio Cumberland Gas Company also maps service in this ZIP.

Pipes under the street: Columbia Gas of Ohio reported 20,620 miles of distribution main to PHMSA for 2025, 64% plastic and 6.6% cast iron or bare steel (the leak-prone materials); 3,271 hazardous leaks repaired in 2025.

PUCO lists 4 companies operating in Knox County: Columbia Gas of Ohio, Enbridge Gas Ohio, Knox Energy Cooperative Association, Inc., Ohio Cumberland Gas Company.

Source: PUCO gas distribution companies by county, April 2026 · federal (EIA) territory polygons, 2016 · Census ACS 2020 to 2024 heating fuel · PUCO natural gas · HIFLD

Power plants

Nearest plant of any size: Progress Drive Generation Station, 10.7 mi (oil, 4 MW).

0 plants within 10 miles totalling 0 MW.

Capacity is net summer capacity in megawatts (EIA), not output; a solar farm's 200 MW runs a quarter of the hours a gas plant's would. Small peaking engines and landfill-gas units count as plants.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Form 860 plant inventory via HIFLD (February 2025); USGS U.S. Wind Turbine Database and U.S. Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database; NRC emergency planning zones around Perry and Davis-Besse (residents inside the roughly 10-mile zone counted by 2020 census block); straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · EIA-860 · HIFLD · USGS wind turbines · USGS solar · NRC emergency planning zones

Gas transmission pipelines

31 miles of transmission pipe cross this ZIP: Columbia Gas Trans Co 31 mi.

Transmission lines run at hundreds of pounds of pressure and are inspected under federal rules; the distribution mains that actually feed homes are a separate, denser network not shown here. By mileage in this EIA layer Ohio's map is dominated by Columbia Gas Transmission and East Ohio Gas's intrastate lines; Texas Eastern and the Rover and Nexus lines built for Utica shale gas are among the other large interstate systems.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Natural Gas Interstate and Intrastate Pipelines layer (data last updated July 2025, pulled September 2026), via the ArcGIS Online copy maintained by Esri's Federal User Community; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center; lengths clipped to the ZIP boundary in an equal-area projection · EIA U.S. Energy Atlas · ArcGIS Online item

Incumbent telephone company

• Brightspeed100% of residentsBrightspeed (formerly CenturyLink)

Source: PUCO incumbent local exchange carrier service areas · 2020 census blocks · PUCO telephone

Internet

Served, 100/20 Mbps or better 95%Underserved, 25/3 to 100/20 1%Unserved, under 25/3 3%

Fiber reaches 11% of locations, cable 72%; a year earlier 86% were served.

Of 12,335 households, 71% subscribe to cable, fiber or DSL, 13% rely on a cellular plan only, and 7% have no internet at home.

Measured by Ookla speed tests, April to June 2025: typical fixed download 263.1 Mbps, upload 45 Mbps, 39 ms latency, across 930 tests from up to 329 devices in 183 map tiles.

Source: FCC Broadband Data Collection, June 2024 (availability) · Census ACS 2020 to 2024 (subscriptions) · Ookla Open Data, fixed-network speed tests by tile, 2025 Q2 (measured speeds) · FCC broadband map · Ookla open data · Census ACS

Cell signal

• AT&T4G 98% · 5G 83%
• T-Mobile4G 88% · 5G 77%
• Verizon4G 100% · 5G 41%

Registered towers: 30 antenna structures registered with the FCC inside this ZIP and 17 within 3 miles of its center; the tallest inside is a 495-foot guyed tower in a 2-tower AM array. Only structures over 200 feet or near airports must register, so most cell sites on short poles, water towers and rooftops are not counted.

Measured mobile speeds (Ookla speed tests, April to June 2026): typical download 264 Mbps, upload 16.8 Mbps, latency 29 ms over 89 tests from up to 50 devices in 36 map tiles.

Coverage as the carriers report it to the FCC for outdoor use at a stationary spot, by land area rather than by residents; indoor signal and rural hollows can be worse.

Source: FCC Mobile Broadband Data Collection via Esri Living Atlas (layer last updated November 2025, i.e. the June 30, 2025 filing round), carrier-reported outdoor coverage by hexagon, summed over the ZIP's land; FCC Antenna Structure Registration database, September 2026; Ookla open data mobile tiles, 2026 Q2 · FCC broadband map · FCC antenna registration · Ookla open data

EV charging

2 public stations inside this ZIP with 4 Level 2 and 0 DC fast ports; the nearest of any kind is MV PKG GARAGE GARAGE STATION1, 0.4 mi. 4 stations within 5 miles of the ZIP's population center, 1 with DC fast charging.

Networks here: ChargePoint (2).

Level 2 adds roughly 20 to 30 miles of range an hour; DC fast charging fills most cars in under an hour. Listings are operator-reported and lag new openings and closures.

Source: NREL Alternative Fuels Data Center via the U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics (public, open electric stations, the posts at one site merged, restricted-access sites excluded), and chargers in neighbouring states near the border; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center; station list as of May 29, 2026 · Alternative Fuels Data Center · BTS Alternative Fueling Stations (NTAD)

Public transit

13 stops inside this ZIP: Knox County Transit (13).

Only fixed-route systems that publish a GTFS feed appear; dial-a-ride and demand-response services do not, and a handful of small fixed-route systems publish no feed at all. Half a mile is roughly a ten-minute walk.

Source: USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transit Map stops (National Transportation Atlas Database, 2025 vintage, fetched September 2026), plus the Springfield, Lancaster-Fairfield, Knox County Transit, WayGo and BGSU Shuttle GTFS feeds; share of 2020 census block population within half a mile of a stop · BTS National Transit Map · BTS transportation atlas · Springfield City Area Transit GTFS feed · Lancaster-Fairfield Public Transit GTFS feed · Knox County Transit GTFS feed · WayGo GTFS feed · BGSU Shuttle GTFS feed

Walkability

Street grid

57 intersections per square mile, a mix of grid and cul-de-sacs

Transit

no stop within three-quarters of a mile in the EPA's 2020 transit file

Mix of uses

employment mix 0.56 and mix of homes and job types 0.54 on the EPA's 0 to 1 scales, where 1 is the most varied

Car-free households

5.3% of households have no vehicle (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

The index scores every block group on intersection density, distance to transit and how mixed its jobs and homes are, then ranks them against the whole country. It measures the street pattern, not sidewalks, safety or hills.

Source: EPA National Walkability Index (Smart Location Database 3.0, 2021) by census block group, population-weighted to the ZIP through 2020 census blocks; car-free households from Census ACS 2020 to 2024 table B25044 (the Homes card), or, where that is missing, the Smart Location Database's own 2014 to 2018 share weighted by households · EPA walkability index · Smart Location Database · Census ACS

Rail crossings

11 with gates; railroads: Columbus & Ohio River (18), an unnamed operator (2). The railroad reports no through or switching trains a day at any of these crossings (fewer than one a day, or the line is idle); fastest line 15 mph.

Train counts and speeds are the railroad's last inventory update. Crossings with only crossbucks rely on the driver; Ohio has averaged about 77 crossing collisions a year from 2010 to 2025 (FRA Form 57), between 64 and 87 in a year.

Source: Federal Railroad Administration, Grade Crossing Inventory (Form 71, current records); crossings whose point falls inside the ZIP boundary, closed crossings excluded; nearest crossing measured from the population-weighted center. Collisions are FRA Form 57 crossing incidents since 2010, placed by crossing id through the inventory's coordinates; train accidents are FRA Form 54 rail equipment accidents since 2010, placed by their own reported coordinates, counted one per incident rather than one per report (county totals from the same file). All three pulled from data.transportation.gov, September 2026 · FRA crossing inventory (Form 71, current) · FRA crossing incidents (Form 57) · FRA rail equipment accidents (Form 54) · FRA safety data · DOT open data

Bridges

Age

typical bridge built 1995, 15 built before 1950; oldest 1892, SR 13 over Kokosing River

Busiest

SR 13 over Kokosing River, 26,321 vehicles a day (2015 count)

Owners

county 54, state 24

Rated poor

Pleasant Valley over Dry Run (1985, 324 a day); Kinney Road over Dry Creek (1975, 323 a day) and 2 more

Ratings come from the inspection every bridge gets at least every two years; poor means deterioration that needs repair, not imminent danger. FHWA's file is a yearly snapshot with inspections through early 2025, so a bridge replaced, re-rated or closed since then still shows its old rating here; ODOT's TIMS bridge inventory carries the current one. Traffic figures are the average daily counts the bridge owners filed with the inventory; most Ohio counts date from 2015 and some are older. County engineers own most of Ohio's small bridges and ODOT the big ones.

Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory 2025 (Ohio file); structures whose point falls inside the ZIP boundary; condition from NBI items 58, 59, 60 and 62 (deck, superstructure, substructure, culvert) · FHWA bridge inventory · ODOT TIMS bridge inventory (live)

Traffic

Trucks

964 a day on US 36, 4% of its traffic

Driving

about 593K vehicle-miles a day on the 649 counted segments inside the ZIP; the typical segment carries 2,516 vehicles

Busiest local road

city street 325, 9,522 vehicles a day

Annual average daily traffic is both directions combined, averaged over the year. County, township and city roads are labelled by their route number, which ODOT uses instead of the street name. Most city streets have no count, so the busiest local road is the busiest counted one. Interchange ramps are left out of the busiest-road pick; a ZIP with nothing but ramps shows one labelled ramp and its ODOT number.

Road deaths: 17 people died in 16 crashes inside this ZIP in 2020 to 2024 (1 pedestrian, 4 motorcyclists); 5 involved a drinking driver and 2 happened in the dark. That is 11.5 deaths a year per 100,000 residents against 10.6 across Ohio's ZIPs; deaths are counted where the crash happened, and many who die live elsewhere. (NHTSA FARS)

Source: ODOT traffic count segments, 2025 annual average daily traffic (ODOT TIMS); segments assigned to the ZIP holding their midpoint; NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System 2020 to 2024, crashes placed by their coordinates · ODOT TIMS traffic count segments · NHTSA FARS

Airports and trains

Nearest airfield

Wynkoop (6G4), Mount Vernon, 1.8 mi, public use

Amtrak

Elyria station, 70.7 mi

Ohio's Amtrak stops are on the Floridian (Amtrak has temporarily combined the Capitol Limited with the Silver Star), the Lake Shore Limited and the Cardinal, all overnight trains; Cincinnati's only calls three times a week. Amtrak's Thruway bus stops, Dayton-Trotwood among them, are not counted as stations here. Airline service at Toledo and Rickenbacker is limited to a few routes; Youngstown-Warren has had no airline flights since 2018.

Source: FAA airport facilities and Amtrak stations via USDOT BTS National Transportation Atlas; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · BTS transportation atlas

Radon in this ZIP

38% of tests at or above EPA's 4 pCi/L action level · median 2.7 · highest 282.0

A ZIP average says nothing about one house; readings next door can differ tenfold. Test yours, and fix it at 4 pCi/L or more.

Source: odh.ohio.gov radon levels by ZIP code, tests since 2010, before mitigation · ODH radon program

Flood zones

4.1% of the ZIP's land is in that floodplain, and another 0.7% is in the 0.2% (500-year) zone; 2.3% of residents live in the 0.2% zone. Zones mapped here: AE, X (0.2%).

Design storms (NOAA Atlas 14): a 100-year storm here drops 5.6 inches in 24 hours (2.8 in a single hour, 4.3 in six); a 2-year storm 2.6, 10-year 3.7, 25-year 4.4, 500-year 7.2 inches in 24 hours. Storm sewers, culverts and detention ponds are sized from these numbers, and a "100-year" storm has a 1% chance every year.

Nearest river gauge: Kokosing River at Mount Vernon OH, 1.5 mi away, draining 202 square miles. Record flow 38,000 cubic feet a second at a stage of 18.19 ft on 1959-01-21; the highest since 2016 was 8,150 on 2017-11-19 (USGS, 61 annual peaks, 1954 to 2025).

118 federal flood insurance policies are in force in this ZIP, covering $18 million of buildings; 85% of them are in a mapped high-risk zone; the typical policy costs $1,164 a year (about 1% of households).

34 federal flood insurance claims from this ZIP since 1978, 4 since 2010, paying about $85,781 in all; the worst year was 1998 with 18 claims; 29% of claims came from outside the mapped high-risk zone.

Levees: 8 levee or floodwall segments totalling 4.3 miles cross this ZIP, holding back Kokosing River. 8 segments are not accredited, so the land behind them stays mapped as floodplain.

Community status: Mount Vernon takes part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 07/07/09. Knox County's unincorporated areas take part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 07/07/09.

Lenders require flood insurance on mortgaged homes in the 1% zone (zones A and AE). Block centers understate narrow floodplains in rural areas, so check the FEMA map for a specific address.

Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (effective flood insurance rate maps, levee centerlines) · 2020 census block centers · ZIP land area by polygon overlay, open water excluded; NOAA Atlas 14 precipitation frequency at the ZIP center; USGS NWIS annual peak flows; OpenFEMA NFIP policies in force by reported ZIP as of September 2026, NFIP redacted claims and the Community Status Book · FEMA flood hazard layer · FEMA Map Service Center · OpenFEMA · NOAA Atlas 14 · USGS stream gauges

Natural hazard risk

• Strong wind89
• Hail88

FEMA's expected annual loss here from all hazards: $9.9 million a year in buildings, crops and lives.

The index blends how often a hazard strikes, what it would cost, and how vulnerable and resilient the community is. Inland flooding (rivers and heavy rain) scores 69, tornado 65, winter weather 84.

Source: FEMA National Risk Index, census tracts, December 2025 release, weighted to this ZIP by 2020 block population · FEMA National Risk Index · NRI census tract layer (ArcGIS)

Climate

Temperature

48.5°F average; typical January low 15°, July high 82°

Hot and cold days

7 days a year reach 90°F; 148 nights fall below freezing, 7 below 0°F; 41 days never climb above freezing

Rain and snow

42.4 inches of precipitation on 87 days with a tenth of an inch or more; 42 inches of snow on 19 days with an inch or more, snow on the ground 44 days

Degree days

6,514 heating, 517 cooling (base 65°F): the higher the heating number, the bigger the winter gas bill

Drought (U.S. Drought Monitor): since 2020 Knox County has spent 21 weeks in moderate drought or worse, 5 of them severe or worse (most recently 5 weeks in 2024), and 63 weeks at least abnormally dry. The worst since 2000 was severe drought in 2024/11; 4% of all weeks since 2000 were in drought. As of 2026-09-01: no drought.

Long run (NOAA, Knox County): the average year ran 50.8 °F over 1996 to 2025 against 49.0 °F over 1901 to 1930, 1.8 °F warmer (1.8 °F warmer than 1951 to 1980); the warmest year on record was 2024 at 53.6 °F, and 2025 came in at 50.5 °F. Precipitation averaged 42.4 inches a year lately against 40.1 a century ago, 6% more; the wettest year was 1990 with 55.0 inches, and 2025 brought 39.9. More rain in bigger bursts is what strains storm sewers and septic fields.

Stations: Fredericktown 4 S (3.3 mi, temperature); Danville 2 W (10 mi, precipitation and snowfall; 23 years of snowfall record). Normals are thirty-year averages, so a single winter can run far above or below them; NOAA marks this snowfall normal provisional because the station record is too short or too patchy for a standard normal, and the temperature and precipitation figures here skip stations with under 10 years.

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020 (annual/seasonal and monthly); nearest reporting station to the ZIP's population-weighted center for each element; U.S. Drought Monitor county statistics · NOAA climate normals · NOAA climate at a glance · U.S. Drought Monitor

Air quality

Worst days

98th-percentile day 21 µg/m³ (24-hour standard 35)

Ozone

64 ppb, 4th-highest daily 8-hour reading at Centerburg WWTP, 12.9 mi away (standard 70)

Knox County AQI, 2025

209 good days, 34 moderate, 2 unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse of the 245 days indexed; peak 159, median 39

Knox County AQI, 2026 so far

54 good days, 7 moderate and 0 unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse in the 61 days indexed through April 30; peak 71 (Ozone)

Air toxics

20 in a million lifetime cancer risk from outdoor air toxics across Knox County (EPA AirToxScreen 2020), mostly formaldehyde (16) and carbon tetrachloride (3)

Permitted sources

17 permitted air sources inside this ZIP under the Clean Air Act (1 major, Title V), 1 synthetic minor; 1 had a violation in the last 3 years. Notable: Owens Corning (major, 1 violation quarter) (7 permanently closed sources also on file) (EPA ECHO)

Air standards

Knox County is a maintenance area for ozone (2008) (Columbus, OH, redesignated 2016), meaning it once failed that standard and must keep a plan to stay clean (EPA Green Book)

Ohio has 38 PM2.5 monitors, mostly in cities and near industry, so a rural ZIP borrows a reading from far away. 2025 includes Canadian wildfire smoke days. Air-toxics risk is EPA's modelled lifetime estimate for the county as a whole; EPA's national average is about 30 in a million, and formaldehyde, with the globally mixed carbon tetrachloride background and acetaldehyde, makes up most of it.

Source: EPA Air Quality System, 2025 annual summary files (monitor annual concentrations, county AQI) and the 2026 daily county AQI file; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center to the nearest monitor · EPA air data files · EPA AirToxScreen · EPA Green Book · EPA ECHO

Toxic and Superfund sites

9 facilities have reported toxic chemical releases or transfers to EPA's inventory from inside this ZIP, and 0 sites appear in the Superfund program's list (most assessed and never listed).

269 EPA-registered facilities of all kinds in this ZIP: 0 brownfield sites in the cleanup program, 98 hazardous-waste handlers, 28 with air permits, 41 with water discharge permits.

Nearest landfill: Washington Environmental Services LLC, 0.7 mi from the center, construction and demolition debris landfill; 1 landfill site within 3 miles of the population center, 2 inside this ZIP. Ohio EPA's list includes closed and historic dumps.

State cleanup program: 6 sites inside this ZIP (BP Plant 69077; Glen Hill Orchard Ag Camp PWS; Ludlow Packaging and more), 6 within 3 miles of the population center; the nearest is Mt Vernon Army Reserve Ctr, 0.1 mi from the center, site assessment.

Voluntary cleanups: 2 properties inside this ZIP hold an Ohio EPA covenant not to sue after a Voluntary Action Program cleanup; 2 such properties within 3 miles of the population center, nearest Woodward Opera House, Mount Vernon, 0.3 mi. These are former industrial and commercial sites certified clean enough to reuse.

Solid waste: 3 licensed waste facilities inside this ZIP (2 compost sites, 1 transfer station); nearest United Aggregates Inc (compost site), 1.2 mi from the center; 3 within 5 miles of the center (Ohio EPA licences, 2026). Compost sites and transfer stations are where most of a county's trash and yard waste actually goes.

Hazardous waste (EPA ECHO): 43 active RCRA handlers inside this ZIP; 3 had a violation in the last 3 years; $7,600 in penalties in the last 5 years. Notable: International Paper - Mt Vernon Container (4 violation quarters); Owens Corning Insulating Systems LLC (2 violation quarters); Ross Brothers Salvage Inc (1 violation quarter). Nearest treatment, storage or disposal facility: Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Ohio LLC in Hebron, 28 mi. Handlers include every business that generates hazardous waste, from body shops to chemical plants.

Underground tanks: 18 sites with 59 registered underground storage tanks in use (171 more tanks closed over the years); 104 leaking-tank releases on record, 2 open at the time, 11 inside a drinking-water source protection area; 4 reported since 2015, the latest in 2018 (EPA UST Finder, Ohio records as of 2018-2019).

Drop-off sites: the nearest scrap tire drop-off is Goodyear Tire Center, Newark OH, 21.4 mi away; the nearest household battery drop-off is Y-NOT Cycling - Mt Vernon, Mount Vernon, 0.3 mi away (2 inside this ZIP) (Ohio EPA).

The inventory covers larger manufacturers and federal facilities that use listed chemicals; reporting means use or release, not a measured hazard to neighbours. Superfund status: on, proposed for, or deleted from the list after cleanup.

Source: EPA Facility Registry Service, Superfund (SEMS and NPL) sites and Toxics Release Inventory reporters, points inside the ZIP boundary; distance from the ZIP's population-weighted center · EPA Facility Registry · EPA Superfund sites · Ohio EPA cleanup sites · EPA UST Finder · EPA ECHO

Toxic releases

Where it went

20 lb to the air, 0 lb to surface water, 0 lb to land or underground injection; another 2 lb was shipped off site for disposal or release

Chemicals

Chromium 10 lb, Nickel 9 lb (carcinogen), Lead 1 lb (carcinogen)

Carcinogens

10 lb of the on-site releases were chemicals EPA lists as carcinogens

Facilities

Prestress Services Industries Llc - Plant 6 (Nonmetallic Mineral Product): 20 lb, mostly Chromium; Owens Corning Insulating Systems Llc Mount Vernon (Nonmetallic Mineral Product): 0 lb

Trend

nothing was released on site in 2020

Pounds are what facilities report, not what reaches anyone: a ton of ammonia to the air and an ounce of mercury to a river are not the same risk. Off-site transfers go mostly to landfills and treatment plants elsewhere.

Source: EPA Toxics Release Inventory, basic data files for Ohio, reporting years 2020 to 2024 (2024 shown); facilities placed by their coordinates; dioxin rows reported in grams are left out of the pound totals · EPA TRI data files

Dams

Nearest high-hazard dam: Knox Cattle Company Dam, 1.9 mi, condition unsatisfactory (recreation, 20 ft high, 30 acre-feet, built 1945, on Tributary To Center Run, private owned).

Inside this ZIP: 4 dams, 1 high-hazard, 0 rated poor: Knox Cattle Company Dam (high hazard, condition unsatisfactory); Anjecondy Lake Dam (significant hazard, condition satisfactory) and 2 more.

"High hazard" describes what a failure would do downstream, not the dam's shape; Ohio rates more than a third of its inventoried dams in poor condition, mostly small private lake dams. Emergency action plans are required for high-hazard dams.

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Inventory of Dams (August 2026 release); straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center. Condition assessments come from Ohio's dam safety program. · National Inventory of Dams

Disasters on record

Strongest nearby: F2 on 1982-03-31, 1 mi track (4 injured).

16 federal declarations for Knox County since Ohio's first in 1956 (10 major disasters): severe storm 7, flood 2, other 2. Latest: Covid-19 Pandemic (2020).

0 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more within 25 miles since 1970.

Warnings since 2015 (National Weather Service, Knox County): 12 tornado warnings (2015: 1, 2017: 1, 2020: 3, 2022: 1, 2023: 1, 2024: 4, 2026: 1), 131 severe thunderstorm warnings, 8 flash flood warnings, 25 flood warnings and 57 flood advisories, 7 winter storm or blizzard warnings, 25 heat warnings or advisories, 7 extreme cold or wind chill warnings, 1 snow squall warning; 731 products in all.

Mitigation grants (FEMA): 2 hazard mitigation projects in Knox County since 1998, worth $106,269 ($79,543 federal), covering 1 property; mostly mitigation planning, property buyouts. Largest: property buyouts for Knox County, $86,057 (fiscal 1998).

Mitigated properties: FEMA money has treated 1 property in this ZIP in 2012: 1 other measure. Buyouts turn repeatedly flooded lots into permanent open space.

Disaster aid to households: 93 households in this ZIP registered with FEMA after 1 declared disaster; 77 were approved for $485,847 of housing and other-needs help. Registrations by event: COVID-19 pandemic (2020): 93.

75 severe weather reports for Knox County since 2016 in NOAA's Storm Events log: 55 damaging thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 5 river and street flooding, 3 flash floods. Largest hail 1.25 in (May 2, 2025); 1 injury; about $526,000 in reported damage, the costliest being damaging thunderstorm wind on Jul 22, 2017 ($125K). Zone-wide advisories add 6 winter storms, 3 high wind, 2 extreme cold.

Tornado tracks are straight lines from touchdown to lift-off; a near miss counts, a direct hit is not distinguished. Declarations include the 2020 COVID-19 emergency for every county; the latest, declared 2 May 2024 (DR-4777), covers the 14 March 2024 tornadoes in eleven counties, Indian Lake among them.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database 1950-2025; OpenFEMA disaster declarations summaries; USGS earthquake catalog (M2+, 1970 to date); NOAA Storm Events database 2016 to 2026 by county. Distances from the ZIP's population-weighted center. · NOAA SPC tornado data · OpenFEMA · USGS earthquakes · NOAA storm events · IEM warning archive

Spills and releases

What spilled

oils and hydraulic fluid (5), sewage, manure or storm water (3), unidentified material or sheen (3)

Largest

about 150 gallons of ferrous chloride / iron chloride (fecl2) in 2021, Mount Vernon

Reached water

3 of them reached a creek, river, ditch or storm drain (named or unnamed)

By year

2021: 3, 2022: 3, 2023: 2, 2024: 2, 2025: 4, 2026: 1

Anyone who spills more than a reportable quantity must call Ohio EPA within 30 minutes, so the log mixes a few gallons of diesel on a highway shoulder with real releases; the reported volume is the caller's first estimate. Every report in Ohio EPA's open-data layer carries coordinates; air-pollution complaints and calls where nothing was found are left out of this count.

Source: Ohio EPA Emergency Response spill reports (Spills2 open data), reports with coordinates inside the ZIP boundary, 2021 to date · Ohio EPA spills data · Ohio EPA Office of Emergency Response

Oil and gas wells

Status

169 producing, 644 plugged or abandoned, the rest drilled but idle, gas storage, orphan, expired permits or unknown

Orphans

18 wells in the state orphan program, unplugged with no solvent owner

Operators

Knox Energy Inc. (72 producing), Bi Joe Development Inc (33 producing)

Ohio has drilled since 1860, so most wells here are old, shallow and plugged; unplugged orphans and injection wells are the ones that matter for groundwater. Well-head points can be a few hundred feet off for the oldest records.

Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, public well inventory (well-head points); counts inside the ZIP boundary and within 1 mile of the ZIP's population-weighted center · ODNR oil and gas · ODNR GIS services

Abandoned mines

Undermined land can subside and old workings can discharge acid mine water; ODNR's Abandoned Mine Land program funds repairs, and mine-subsidence insurance is included automatically in 26 eastern counties and offered as an option in 11 more. Maps drawn before 1977 are incomplete, so "none" means none mapped.

Quarries, pits and working mines: 2 working operations inside this ZIP in 2015 (Apple Valley, clay; United Aggregates, Inc., sand & gravel); nearest United Aggregates, Inc. (sand & gravel, United Aggregates, Inc., 156,281 tons sold), 1.2 mi away in Knox County; 1 within 3 miles, 5 within 10 (ODNR Industrial Minerals Locations, 2015, which includes surface and underground coal mines).

Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Mines of Ohio (abandoned underground mine maps, coal and industrial minerals, pre-1977), overlaid on the ZIP boundary in an equal-area projection · ODNR mines of Ohio · ODNR Geological Survey

Soils and septic

Soil

Dumps; Dumps makes up 100% of the unit

Water

drainage unknown; flooding not rated, ponding not rated

Septic

Not rated for a leach field under Ohio's rule

Basements

Not rated for dwellings with basements

Farmland

Not prime farmland

Elevation

981 feet above sea level at the ZIP's population center; Ohio runs from 455 feet where the Ohio River leaves the state to 1,549 feet at Campbell Hill

One point stands for the ZIP; soils change field by field, and a site evaluation is what the health department goes by. "Very limited" means the standard design will not work, not that nothing will.

Source: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, SSURGO soil survey via Soil Data Access; the map unit at the ZIP's population-weighted center and its dominant component's interpretations; Copernicus GLO-90 elevation model (via Open-Meteo) at that center · USDA Soil Data Access · Web Soil Survey · Open-Meteo elevation

Parks and public land

Wolf Run Regional Park Acquisition

local park, 291 acres inside the ZIP

Chapel Hill Golf Course

private park, 155 acres inside the ZIP

Nearest state park: Mohican State Park, 17.6 mi.

Protected land: 1% of this ZIP (1,014 acres) is in the USGS Protected Areas Database inventory of fee-owned parks, preserves and recreation land (public agencies, land trusts, and private clubs, camps and utility land, as their owners report it): 510 acres local, 504 acres private. Largest: Wolf Run Regional Park Acquisition (county), 291 acres; Chapel Hill Golf Course (private owner), 155 acres; Irish Hills Golf Course (private owner), 143 acres. 1% of the ZIP is protected land open to the public.

Trails: 5.3 miles of named trails cross this ZIP: Ohio to Erie Trail (2.7 mi, statewide trail); Kokosing Gap Trail (2.6 mi, county trail); 21.1 miles more are proposed or planned (ODNR statewide trails inventory).

Open access as reported by each owner; local inventories vary, so a golf course or school field can be listed and a new park missed.

State lands nearby (ODNR facility layers): nearest boat ramp: Howard Road at Alum Creek State Park, 25.9 mi (0 within 5 miles); fishing access: Fishing Access at Mohican State Park, 17.8 mi (0 within 5 miles); swim area: Boater Swim Area at Alum Creek State Park, 26.1 mi (0 within 5 miles); campground: Class B Campground at Mohican State Park, 17.9 mi (0 within 5 miles).

Source: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States 4.1 (open-access fee, designation and easement polygons), overlaid on the ZIP boundary; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center to the nearest ODNR state park · USGS PAD-US · ODNR GIS services

Wetlands

745 acres forested/shrub wetland, 424 acres pond, 276 acres emergent wetland. Largest single wetland: 57 acres of freshwater forested/shrub wetland.

Vernal pools: 46 potential high-quality vernal pools covering 32 acres lie inside this ZIP (Ohio EPA screening): seasonal woodland pools that dry by summer, hold no fish, and are where salamanders and fairy shrimp breed.

High-quality wetlands: nearest is Chesterfield Swamp (Gleeson Family Nature Reserve) (Morrow County Park District), 44 acres, 12.1 mi away; 0 within 10 miles.

Mitigation sites: nearest North Fork Licking river, 13.7 mi away (a permittee-responsible site under an environmental covenant); 0 within 10 miles. These are wetlands and streams built or restored to replace ones filled under Clean Water Act permits.

Assessed wetland: 3 Ohio EPA study wetlands inside this ZIP; nearest Nazarene, a mixed swamp forest of 3.2 acres, 1 mi away: ORAM 17 of 100 (category 1), plant community index 10 of 100 (surveyed 2001); 4 within 10 miles. Category 3 wetlands are the state's best and hardest to fill; category 1 are degraded.

On the old maps: USGS topographic maps marked 71 acres of marsh and swamp here, 0.1% of the ZIP (Ohio EPA's digitized topo-map wetlands).

Mapped from aerial photography, mostly 2004 to 2007 (the Lake Erie watersheds were re-mapped from 2021 imagery, a few areas date from 1976 to 2005 or 2014 to 2023), so small and seasonal wetlands are undercounted and ponds dug or filled since then are missing; a site delineation decides whether a lot is jurisdictional. Emergent means marsh, forested and shrub means swamp.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wetlands Inventory (Ohio geodatabase), freshwater wetland and pond polygons clipped to the ZIP boundary; lakes and river channels excluded, imagery mostly 2004 to 2007 (Lake Erie basin 2021) · USFWS wetlands inventory · Ohio EPA GIS services

Land cover

Developed

11%: 1% high intensity (downtown blocks, big-box lots), 1% medium (apartments, small-lot houses), 3% low (houses on larger lots), 6.0% open space (lawns, parks, golf courses, road verges)

Farmland

57%: 37% row crops, 20% pasture and hay

Crops 2025

of 37,136 cropped acres, 50% soybeans, 42% corn, 2% wheat and small grains (plus 1% wheat followed by soybeans, counted under soybeans), 4% hay and alfalfa; 21,224 acres of pasture and grass (USDA Cropland Data Layer)

Forest

31%, plus 0.5% grass and shrub

Water and wetland

0.3% open water, 0.6% wetland

Paved and roofed

3% of the ZIP's surface is impervious; rain that lands there runs straight to a storm drain or stream instead of soaking in

Tree canopy

25% of the ZIP sits under tree canopy

Area

154.2 square miles of land

Land cover is classified from Landsat imagery at 30 metre pixels, so a house on a wooded lot can read as forest and a farm lane as open space. Stream health starts to slip once about 10% of a watershed is impervious, and is usually poor above 25%.

Source: National Land Cover Database 2021 (USGS and the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium): land cover, percent impervious surface and tree canopy at 30 m, summarised over the ZIP boundary · NLCD · USDA Cropland Data Layer · ODNR pre-settlement vegetation

People

Education

24.1% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 9.3% a graduate degree; 47.5% stopped at high school or earlier

Ages

21.9% under 18, 21.3% 65 or older

Race and origin

92% white, 1% Black, 2.8% Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% Asian, 3.6% other or two or more races

Born abroad

1.6% of residents (503 people); largest countries of birth: Mexico (200), Philippines (131), Ukraine (43)

Veterans

9% of adults

Households

2.4 people per household on average; 35% of households are one person living alone, 48% married couples

Who lives here

29% of households include children, 38% someone 65 or over and 16.6% are a senior living alone; of people 15 and over, 51% are married, 29% never married, 13% divorced and 7% widowed

Poverty

15.5% of residents live below the poverty line, 20.9% of children and 9.8% of people 65 and over; the Gini index of income inequality is 0.44 (0 would mean every household earns the same, 1 that one household earns everything). County-wide, the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate is 10.7% (12.9% of children) with a median household income of $72,305 (SAIPE)

Ancestry

most often reported: German 25%, English 17%, Irish 14%

Movers

9.4% of residents lived somewhere else a year earlier, 1.1% in another state and 0.1% abroad

Language

0.0% of households speak limited English; 1.9% speak Spanish at home

Group quarters

1,740 of the 29,594 people counted here in 2020 (5.9%) lived in group quarters: 912 in college housing, 516 in nursing facilities, 194 in other group housing such as shelters, group homes and worker dormitories, 86 in prisons and jails, 32 in juvenile facilities (2020 Census)

Moving

2,451 people moved into Knox County between the returns they filed in 2022 and 2023 and 2,385 moved out (net +66, 48,543 stayed put); most arrivals came from Franklin, OH (413), Licking, OH (377), Delaware, OH (215); most leavers went to Richland, OH (282), Franklin, OH (270), Licking, OH (265) (IRS)

Metro or rural

USDA rural-urban continuum code 6 of 9 for Knox County: nonmetro - urban population of 5,000 to 20,000, adjacent to a metro area

Nonprofits

226 tax-exempt organizations registered to addresses in this ZIP, 27 of them reporting $1 million or more in income; 85% are 501(c)(3) charities and 21% churches or religious groups; largest: Knox Community Hospital ($259 million), Mount Vernon Nazarene University ($85 million), Knox County Foundation ($34 million) (IRS)

County growth

Knox County went from 62,719 people in April 2020 to 64,002 in July 2025 (+2.0%): 3,570 births, 3,778 deaths and a net +1,378 from migration since 2020; in 2025 alone a net 372 moved in from elsewhere in the U.S. and 64 arrived from abroad (Census estimates)

Since 1900

First counted in 1810 with 2,149 people and 28,872 by 1850, Knox County counted 27,768 people in 1900, 35,287 in 1950, 41,795 in 1970, 54,482 in 2000 and 62,719 in 2020; it has never been larger than today (2.3 times its 1900 size, decennial censuses)

Commuting area: USDA classes this ZIP as the core of a micropolitan area (a town of 10,000 to 50,000) (rural-urban commuting area code 4 of 10, 2020 edition).

Race shares follow the Census categories, with Hispanic origin counted separately from race. Five-year averages centered on 2022. Moves count people on tax returns whose address changed county, so students and the very poor are undercounted.

Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates by ZIP Code Tabulation Area (tables B15003, B03002, B05002, B21001, B01001, B25010, B11001, B17001, B19083, B04006, B07003, C16002, B05006, B11005, B11007, B12001); county population estimates, vintage 2025; IRS exempt organization master file; USDA rural-urban continuum codes 2023; USDA ERS rural-urban commuting area codes 2020; 2020 Census PL 94-171 redistricting file, group quarters (table P5); IRS Statistics of Income county migration, returns filed in 2022 and 2023; Census SAIPE 2024 county poverty and median income; decennial county counts from the Census Bureau report Population of States and Counties of the United States 1790 to 1990 · Census ACS · Census population estimates · IRS migration data · USDA ERS county codes · USDA ERS commuting area codes · 2020 Census redistricting data · Census SAIPE · IRS exempt organizations

Jobs and commuting

Largest employers by sector: Manufacturing 3,418, Health care and social assistance 2,924, Retail 1,760. 50% of local jobs pay over $3,333 a month, and 50% of residents' jobs do.

Businesses: 686 establishments with 12,527 employees and $640 million a year in payroll in 2023, at least 12 of them with 100 or more workers; most common: health care and social assistance (113), retail (98), other services (88), restaurants and hotels (68) (ZIP Business Patterns).

Workplace safety (OSHA): 27 inspections of workplaces in this ZIP since 2020 (2 after deaths or injury reports, 9 after complaints, 3 planned, 7 on referrals); most inspected: Knox Community Hospital (5), Jeld-Wen, Inc. (3), The Laurels Of Mt. Vernon (2). 2 worker deaths investigated since 2015 and 5 hospitalisations: 2021, employee with covid-19 infection dies; 2020, employee with covid-19 infection dies.

County labor market: Knox County's unemployment rate was 3.2% in July 2026 (4.6% a year earlier), with 29,766 people in the labor force and 961 looking for work. Employers in the county paid an average of $1,073 a week in the first quarter of 2026 (up 1.4% on the year) to 20,233 workers at 1,368 establishments, employment up 0.5%; the largest private sectors are manufacturing (4,274 jobs, $1,437 a week), health care and social assistance (3,161 jobs, $1,082 a week), retail (2,137 jobs, $628 a week). (BLS)

Working-age residents: 60.3% of people 16 and over here are in the labor force, and 2.9% of the civilian labor force was unemployed, averaged over 2020 to 2024 (Census ACS). Residents' most common occupations: office and administrative support 14%, management and business 13%, education, legal, community service and arts 10%; 7% are self-employed and 13% work for a government.

Federal money: in fiscal 2025 the federal government obligated $58,000 in contracts performed in Knox County ($1 a resident) and $59 million in grants ($943 a resident), plus $207,000 in loan guarantees and loans and $386 million in direct payments to people and organizations (USAspending; Social Security, Medicare and most benefits are not counted).

County economy: Knox County produced $2.3 billion of real GDP in 2024 (2017 dollars, up 8.3% since 2019); personal income came to $58,293 a person in 2024, 36th of Ohio's 88 counties and up 31% since 2019 before inflation (BEA).

County type (USDA ERS, 2015 codes): Knox County is a nonmetro county with a manufacturing-dependent economy, with none of the ERS distress flags.

Opportunity zone: 12% of residents live in a census tract designated a federal Qualified Opportunity Zone in 2018, where investors who put capital gains into local projects get tax breaks (CDFI Fund list, 2010 tracts carried to 2020 boundaries).

How they get there: 77.8% drive alone, 5.4% carpool, 0.3% transit, 2.7% walk, 0% bike, 12.9% work from home (ACS).

Where residents work: 41% inside this ZIP; 3% in Gambier (43022), 3% in Newark (43055), 3% in Fredericktown (43019) (shares of the 11,178 residents with an Ohio workplace).

Unemployment-insurance records tie each job to a workplace and a home address; large employers sometimes report every worker at a headquarters, which inflates a few ZIPs. Self-employment, the military, the Postal Service, most farm work and a large part of federal civilian employment are missing (federal jobs come from OPM records that omit several agencies and, in practice, most of Wright-Patterson).

Source: Census Bureau LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, all jobs; populated census blocks assigned to ZIP Code Tabulation Areas by interior point, workplace-only blocks by the majority ZCTA of their block group or tract; Census ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023; OSHA enforcement data via the Labor Department open data catalog; BLS county unemployment (LAUS) and wages (QCEW); Census ACS 2020 to 2024 labor force by ZIP Code Tabulation Area (B23025); USAspending federal awards by county, fiscal 2025; BEA county GDP and personal income · Census LEHD · BLS local unemployment · BLS QCEW · BEA county GDP · USAspending · OSHA enforcement data · Census ZIP Business Patterns · Census ACS · USDA ERS county typology · CDFI Fund Opportunity Zones

Upward mobility

Meaning

below the Ohio median: low-income children here mostly stayed in the lower half

Incarceration

1.71% of those children were in jail or prison on census day 2010

Coverage

81% of the ZIP's residents live in tracts with an estimate

The rank describes people born around 1980 who were children here in the 1980s and 1990s; neighbourhoods change, so it is a record of what the place did for one generation, not a forecast. Estimates for small tracts are noisy.

Source: Opportunity Atlas tract outcomes (Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones and Porter, 2018; Census Bureau and IRS data for children born 1978 to 1983), population-weighted to ZIPs through 2020 census blocks · Opportunity Atlas · Opportunity Insights data

Social vulnerability

Socioeconomic status

54th percentile: poverty, unemployment, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, no health insurance

Household characteristics

52nd: people 65 and over or 17 and under, disability, single-parent households, limited English

Racial and ethnic minority status

27th

Housing and transportation

49th: multi-unit and mobile homes, crowding, no vehicle, group quarters

The index ranks tracts on how much help their residents would need in a disaster or disease outbreak, using American Community Survey 2018 to 2022 figures. Ranks are within Ohio; a ZIP is the average of its tracts weighted by residents.

Source: CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index 2022, census tracts ranked among Ohio tracts, population-weighted to the ZIP through 2020 census blocks · CDC/ATSDR SVI

Community health

Weight and activity

obesity 37.8%, no leisure-time physical activity 29.1%

Chronic conditions

diabetes 13.4%, high blood pressure 39.0%, COPD 9.3%, cancer (any but non-melanoma skin cancer) 10.0%

Habits

current smoking 16.4%, binge drinking 16.4%, short sleep 34.6%

Mind

depression 25.8%, frequent mental distress 17.8%, feeling lonely 33.6%

Access

uninsured under 65 7.9%, yearly checkup 78.6%, dental visit 59.6%

Hardship

any disability 31.1%, food insecurity 13.4%

Heart and lungs

current asthma 11.2%, coronary heart disease 8.0%, stroke 3.9%, arthritis 32.4%

Keeping up

80.7% of adults with high blood pressure take medicine for it, 85.4% had a cholesterol check in 5 years

Social needs

housing insecurity 10.1%, no reliable transportation 7.4%, utility shut-off threat 7.5%, lacking emotional support 19.7%

Provider shortage

100% live in a designated primary care shortage area (score 11 of 25); 100% live in an area HRSA designates a dental shortage area for its low-income residents (score 13 of 26); 100% live in a designated mental health shortage area (score 15 of 25) (HRSA; higher scores mean greater need)

Coverage (Census)

6.7% of residents have no health insurance (5.7% of children); 22% are on Medicaid and 48% have coverage through an employer

Disability (Census)

15.8% of residents report a disability, 34% of those 65 and over

County (County Health Rankings 2025): Knox County sits in health group 3 of 10 among U.S. counties for population health (1 is healthiest) and group 4 for community conditions. Premature death 7,936 (Ohio 9,740) years of life lost before 75 per 100,000; one primary care doctor for every 2,516 people (Ohio 1,328), one mental health provider for every 452 people (Ohio 286), one dentist for every 2,038 people (Ohio 1,535); preventable hospital stays 3,410 (Ohio 3,033) per 100,000 Medicare enrollees; injury deaths 71.6 (Ohio 100.7) and suicides 15.6 (Ohio 14.7) per 100,000; infant deaths 6.0 (Ohio 7.0) per 1,000 births; teen births 14.7 (Ohio 17.4) per 1,000 girls 15 to 19; children in poverty 14.1 (Ohio 17.5) percent; fine-particle air pollution 7.7 (Ohio 7.8) micrograms per cubic metre; no community water system in the county had a health-based drinking water violation in 2023. Drug overdoses: 12 deaths in the 12 months ending December 2025 (20 at the highest since 2020, in the 12 months ending May 2021), about 19 per 100,000 residents against 20.8 statewide (CDC provisional counts).

Cancer (NCI State Cancer Profiles): Knox County records 487.2 new cancers a year per 100,000 people, age-adjusted, for 2018 to 2022 (Ohio 472.9, U.S. 448.6), about 401 cases a year, with the rate stable; cancer deaths 157.6 per 100,000 (Ohio 160.3, U.S. 145.4), falling. By site, per 100,000 (Ohio in parentheses): lung 58 (63.6), colorectal 43 (38.4), female breast 113.6 (133), prostate 134.3 (120.8), bladder 22.8 (21.8), leukemia 18.7 (13).

Medicare: 14,769 people in Knox County were on Medicare in 2025 (23% of residents): 13,209 aged 65 or over and 1,560 younger people with disabilities. 54% chose a Medicare Advantage plan, 13% also had Medicaid and 83% had Part D drug coverage; enrollment is up 11% since 2020 (CMS).

Modelled from a national telephone survey and the ZIP's demographics, so these are estimates of what residents would report, not counts of patients; small ZIPs carry wide margins.

Source: CDC PLACES, 2025 release (BRFSS 2023 and 2022, ACS 2019-2023), model-based ZCTA estimates of crude adult prevalence; County Health Rankings 2025 and CDC provisional overdose counts for the county; HRSA shortage area designations weighted to the ZIP; Census ACS 2020 to 2024 (insurance, disability); CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, county, 2025 · CDC PLACES · County Health Rankings · CDC overdose data · NCI cancer profiles · HRSA data

Life expectancy

Ohio's statewide figure for the same years was 77.6; the United States 78.7. Differences of a year or two between neighbouring ZIPs are within the estimates' error; differences of five or more are real and track income, smoking and access to care.

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP), 2010-2015, census tracts weighted by 2020 block population · CDC USALEEP

Nearest hospital

117 beds · no trauma designation listed · 1 general or critical-access hospital within 10 miles, 3 within 25.

Medicare rating: ★★★☆☆ · emergency room: yes · typical ER visit 198 minutes door to discharge (Ohio median 155)

Patients' verdict: 65% would definitely recommend it, 73% rated their stay 9 or 10 out of 10 (★★★☆☆ patient-experience rating, 349 surveys).

Outcomes: 30-day death rates after heart failure 12.7% (about the national rate), heart attack 13.3% (about the national rate), pneumonia 19% (about the national rate), July 2022 to June 2025; the patient-safety composite for serious complications (July 2022 to June 2024) is about the national value (Medicare).

Community health center: 5 inside this ZIP, nearest Behavioral Health of Mount Vernon Health Center, Mount Vernon, 0.3 mi away; 5 within 3 miles, 5 within 10. These federally funded clinics see anyone and charge on a sliding scale.

Veterans: nearest VA site is Daniel L. Kinnard VA Clinic, Newark (multi-specialty outpatient clinic), 24 mi away; 0 VA sites within 10 miles, 2 within 25.

Providers: 1,145 active health care providers list a practice address in this ZIP: 110 physicians, 67 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, 27 dentists, 226 mental health professionals, 12 pharmacies, 1 urgent care center, 1 hospital, 22 nursing or assisted-living facilities, 26 home health or hospice agencies; most common physician specialties: Family Medicine (23), Internal Medicine (13), Emergency Medicine (7) (NPPES registry, August 2026).

Dialysis: 2 centers inside this ZIP, nearest Fmc - Knox County Kidney Center, Mount Vernon, 1.7 mi away, 14 stations, Medicare ★★★★☆ (Fresenius Medical Care); 2 within 5 miles, 2 within 15.

Source: federal HIFLD hospital inventory (via FEMA) with Medicare Care Compare star ratings, emergency-service flags, median emergency department times (measure OP_18b), HCAHPS patient survey results and 30-day death rates and patient-safety composites (Complications and Deaths file; a campus with no record of its own carries its parent hospital's figures, labelled); NPPES NPI registry, August 2026 monthly file, active records by practice ZIP; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center (some listings lag closures and mergers); HRSA health center sites, CMS dialysis facilities (geocoded with the Census geocoder) and the VA facility list · CMS Care Compare data · HIFLD · HRSA data · CMS NPI files

Nursing homes

6 certified homes within 5 miles, 8 within 15; 6 inside this ZIP.

Medicare rating

★★★☆☆ overall; inspections ★★★☆☆; staffing ★☆☆☆☆

Beds

20 certified

Ownership

For profit, corporation

Penalties

no federal fines or payment denials since 2023 (CMS)

In this ZIP: ALS MOUNT VERNON INC (3★, 20 beds); COUNTRY CLUB RETIREMENT CENTER (2★, 76 beds); COUNTRY COURT (2★, 84 beds) and 3 more.

Stars are Medicare's Care Compare ratings; a 1-star home failed inspections or is thinly staffed, and the abuse flag means a citation for harm in the past year or two. Ratings shift every quarter.

Source: Medicare Care Compare nursing home provider and penalties files (CMS), geocoded with the Census Bureau; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · CMS Care Compare data

Crime

Violent

5 offenses: 0 murders, 1 rape, 0 robberies, 4 aggravated assaults (0.4 per 1,000 residents a year; Ohio 3.2)

Property

28 offenses: 5 burglaries, 21 thefts, 1 vehicle theft (2.0 per 1,000 a year; Ohio 16.9)

Other

13 simple assaults, 20 vandalism reports, 120 drug offenses, 13 weapons violations

Reporting

incidents on file for 10 of 12 months of 2024 (January to October); the counts cover those months and the rates are annualized; 16,421 residents served; this department covers the 57% of the ZIP's residents in its territory, the rest fall under others

Rates cover the whole agency's territory, not this ZIP alone: a city's downtown and its quiet edges share one number. Murders, rapes and assaults are counted once per victim and other offenses once per incident, as the FBI's Crime Data Explorer does; a large department's figures can still fall somewhat short of the Explorer's, which takes in later submissions, and a sheriff's population is only the unincorporated area it serves.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, NIBRS incident data for Ohio, 2024 (2023 for the trend): Group A offenses per reporting agency (violent = murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault; property = burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson), murders, rapes and assaults counted once per victim; the agency is the police department of the ZIP's largest local government (city, village or township) when it has one of its own, found in the FBI's 2023 and 2024 rosters or the USGS police station inventory, otherwise the sheriff of the ZIP's county; a rate needs at least six months of 2024 on file and is annualized from fewer than 12; the Ohio figures pool the 511 police departments and sheriff's offices with all 12 months on file · FBI Crime Data Explorer · USGS structures service

Police and post office

2 stations within 3 miles, 3 within 8. Inside this ZIP: Knox County Sheriff's Office; Mount Vernon Police Department.

Nearest post office: Mount Vernon Post Office, 0.5 mi; 2 inside this ZIP.

Townships without their own department are policed by the county sheriff, whose office may be at the county seat; the state highway patrol covers the roads. The inventory lists stations, not patrol zones. It also misses some departments and still lists some that have closed; the atlas adds the departments that reported at least six months of 2024 crimes to the FBI but had no station in it, and drops the closed and duplicate records it found.

Source: USGS National Map structures inventory (police stations, post offices), with closed and duplicate records dropped, wrong names corrected and departments it lacks added from OpenStreetMap and the Census Bureau geocoder (September 2026); straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · USGS structures service · OpenStreetMap · Census Bureau geocoder

Fire and EMS

2 stations within 3 miles, 6 within 8.

Inside this ZIP: Mount Vernon Fire Department Station 491; Mount Vernon Fire Department Station 492; Monroe Township Fire and Emergency Services.

Source: USGS National Map structures inventory (fire and EMS stations; most Ohio records last updated 2019 to 2022), Columbus- and Cleveland-area stations checked against the cities' station lists, September 2026. Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania stations near the line are included; Kentucky and West Virginia stations across the Ohio River are not. Straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center. Stations open or close without the inventory always catching up. · USGS structures service · Columbus fire stations · Cleveland fire stations

Public library

1 library within 3 miles, 3 within 8.

Open

about 58 hours a week

Building

20,000 square feet

Mt Vernon & Knox County, Public Library Of

4 buildings, serves 56K people, 6 visits per resident a year, 392K items lent, 742 programs, $3.4M annual income

Inside this ZIP: Mt Vernon & Knox County, Public Library Of.

Museums: 4 inside this ZIP (B&O Depot Restoration, Knox County Historical Society, Schnormeier Gallery and 1 more); nearest Science Play-Space Initiative, science or technology museum, Mount Vernon, 0.3 mi away; 6 within 5 miles, 10 within 15 (IMLS 2018 directory: museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos).

Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey fiscal 2024 (outlet and system files) and Museum Data Files 2018 (museums); straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · IMLS Public Libraries Survey · IMLS Museum Data Files

Grocery access

Distance

81% of residents live more than half a mile from a supermarket, 47% more than 1 mile, under 1% more than 10 miles

Without a car

46% live in a tract flagged for low income and low vehicle access; 5.3% of households have no vehicle (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Poverty

17.2% of residents below the poverty line

SNAP stores

5 supermarkets or superstores and 1 grocery store inside this ZIP take SNAP, alongside 9 convenience stores, 3 farmers markets, 6 other outlets (dollar, drug and discount stores); nearest supermarket or grocery store Bakers IGA (supermarket), 0.3 mi from the ZIP's center; 6 supermarkets and grocery stores within 3 miles (USDA, 2026)

SNAP households

13% of households received SNAP benefits in the past year (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Setting

60% of residents in urban tracts, across 11 tracts, 3 flagged

A "supermarket" here is a large grocery store, supercenter or club; dollar stores and corner groceries do not count, and stores that opened since 2019 are missing from the distance figures; the SNAP store list is current. Rural distance flags mean a long drive, not necessarily hardship.

Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Food Access Research Atlas: 2019 Large Retailer Access Map (2010 census tracts, 2019 supermarket list; ERS's name for this file since July 2026), tract values weighted into ZIPs by 2020 census block population; SNAP store counts from USDA Food and Nutrition Service retailer locations, 2026; SNAP and no-vehicle households from Census ACS 2020 to 2024 · USDA ERS Large Retailer Access Map · USDA SNAP retailers · Census ACS

History

The history of this area has not been researched yet; the work runs county by county outward from Franklin County.

Source: Local history researched from Wikipedia, the 1880 county histories on archive.org, Ohio History Connection, National Register listings, Ohio historical markers, local historical societies and Wikimedia Commons, one file per municipality and township, loaded on demand; Native American history per county and statewide from the same sources and the nations' own histories · Ohio History Connection · Internet Archive (county histories) · Wikimedia Commons · Remarkable Ohio (historical markers)

Historic places

• Knox County Courthouse (building)
• Knox County Infirmary (building)
• Loveridge, Richard and Ann, House (building)
• and 4 more

Place names (USGS): 16 named communities (Bangs, Dalrymple Corners, Vaughan Court, Buckingham Court, Mount Vernon and more); 15 named streams end here (Delano Run, Dry Run, Adams Run, Curtis Run and more); 1 named lake or reservoir (Lake Hiawatha). Federal maps carry these names; the communities include hamlets and crossroads that never incorporated.

Listing recognizes significance and brings review of federally funded projects; it does not restrict a private owner. Historic districts count once, at their center.

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places spatial data (point file); listings whose point falls inside the ZIP boundary · National Register data · USGS GNIS

School district

• Mount Vernon City91% of residentsCity school district
• Centerburg Local3% of residentsLocal school district

ZIP codes and school districts do not share boundaries, so this ZIP is split between them.

8 public schools inside this ZIP: Columbia Elementary School (4 stars); Dan Emmett Elementary School (4.5 stars); East Elementary School (5 stars); Knox County Career Center and 4 more. Nearest to the population center: East Elementary School (5 stars), 0.6 mi; 6 within a mile, 8 within 3.

5 private schools inside this ZIP with 295 students in kindergarten through 12th grade (5 religious): St. Vincent De Paul School (179 students, Catholic); Temple Christian Academy (49 students, religious, denomination-affiliated); Chapel Hill Christian Academy (39 students, religious, independent) and 2 more (NCES Private School Survey 2023-24; the survey's student counts, here and per school, exclude prekindergarten).

Enrolled here: 3,743 students attend the 8 public schools inside this ZIP with 2023-24 enrollment on file; 15.8 students per teacher. 49% of the 3,153 students at the 6 schools reporting it qualify for free or reduced-price meals (2 did not report); 2 schools use the community eligibility provision, which counts every student. (NCES)

Enrollment: 5,050 residents attend kindergarten through 12th grade, 15% of them at private schools; 2,158 are in college or graduate school (Census ACS 2020 to 2024).

Money, fiscal 2023: Mount Vernon City took in $54 million, 38% from the state, 47% local and 15% federal, and spent $13,724 per pupil on day-to-day operations for 3,536 students, 59% of it on instruction; capital outlay $2.7 million (Census school finance survey via NCES).

Child poverty: the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts 14% of Mount Vernon City's school-age children below the poverty line (623 of 4,527 aged 5 to 17; SAIPE).

Source: Ohio school district boundaries (OGRIP, 2014 edition, via ODOT) · 2020 census blocks · public school locations from NCES EDGE, 2024-25 · enrollment and meals from the NCES Common Core of Data 2023-24 · private schools from the NCES Private School Survey 2023-24 · district finances from the Census F-33 survey, fiscal 2023 · child poverty from Census SAIPE 2024 · ODOT GIS · NCES EDGE · NCES Common Core of Data · NCES private schools · Census SAIPE · Census school finances (F-33)

School report card

Components

achievement 4 stars, progress 4 stars, gap closing 5 stars, early literacy 3 stars, graduation 4 stars, college and career readiness 2 stars

Achievement

performance index 85.6% of ODE's maximum score for the year (the average of the top 2% of district scores, not the highest score possible) (score 94, 91.5 the year before)

Graduation

94.1% of the class of 2024 graduated in four years; 61% of that class (graduates or not) showed college, career, workforce or military readiness

Spending

$10,892 per pupil in 2023-24 against $12,759 statewide

Teachers

average salary $75,290, 17 years of experience, 67.8% with a master's degree, 2.8% in their first years of teaching

Enrollment

3,314 students in 2024-25

Three stars means the district meets state standards, five that it significantly exceeds them, one that it needs significant support. Achievement stars follow family income closely; the progress component (growth from year to year) is the fairer measure of teaching. Charter and private schools are not in the district figures.

Source: Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, 2024-2025 School Report Cards (district overview, achievement, expenditures per pupil and educator files), for the district where most of this ZIP's residents live · Ohio school report cards

Colleges

Knox County Career Center is a public career school with 204 students over the 2023-24 year.

3 institutions within 10 miles, 8 within 25. Inside this ZIP: Knox County Career Center; Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Next nearest: Mount Vernon Nazarene University (1.2 mi).

Universities, community colleges, career schools and private colleges all count; branch campuses appear only where IPEDS lists them separately. Graduation rates follow first-time full-time students for 150% of normal time.

Source: NCES IPEDS 2024 directory, 12-month enrollment 2023-24, tuition and fees 2023-24 and graduation rates for the 2017 entering cohort at four-year institutions and the 2020 cohort at two-year ones; straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center · NCES IPEDS

Local government

• Mount Vernon (city)57% of residentsCity
• Clinton Township, Knox County10% of residentsTownship
• Monroe Township, Knox County7% of residentsTownship
• Liberty Township, Knox County6% of residentsTownship
• Pleasant Township, Knox County5% of residentsTownship
• Morris Township, Knox County5% of residentsTownship
• Miller Township, Knox County4% of residentsTownship
• Milford Township, Knox County2% of residentsTownship

ZIP codes and municipal and township boundaries do not share boundaries, so this ZIP is split between them.

Ohio EPA grants 2025: 1 grant worth $9,320 went to Mount Vernon Nazarene University in this ZIP (1 recycling).

Source: ODOT municipal corporation and township boundaries · 2020 census blocks · Ohio EPA grants awarded in 2025 (OEPA_Achievements map service) · Auditor of State unauditable entities list · ODOT GIS · Auditor of State · Ohio EPA grants (OEPA_Achievements)

Who represents this ZIP

U.S. Senate: Bernie Moreno (R), Jon Husted (R)

• Troy Balderson RU.S. House OH-12Zanesville · since 2018 · site
• Andrew O. Brenner ROhio Senate 19Delaware · since 2018 · site
• Mark Hiner ROhio House 98 · 73%Howard · since 2024 · site
• Beth Lear R 61 · 27%Galena · since 2022 · site

District lines cut through this ZIP, so more than one member serves its residents; the share is by 2020 population.

Source: ODOT district boundaries · members from the U.S. House, Ohio Senate and Ohio House directories, September 2026 · U.S. House · Ohio Senate · Ohio House · ODOT GIS