ZIP code 44870: Sandusky

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

61.4 µg/L yearly mean in 2019, the last year in the file (limit 80); worst yearly mean 61.4, highest single sample 106; 129 samples from 2012 to 2019

HAA5

12 µg/L yearly mean in the last year sampled (limit 60); worst yearly mean 18.4, highest sample 31.3; 129 samples

Nitrate

highest of 96 samples was 2.04 mg/L as nitrogen (2013; limit 10); 1.81 in 2019, the last year sampled. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants

Arsenic

highest of 10 samples was 2.2 µg/L (limit 10); detections averaged 2.2

Solvents and fuels

benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, vinyl chloride not detected in 8 samples

Bacteria

0 of 2,882 routine tap samples (0%) tested positive for total coliform in 2012 to 2019, 0 of 360 in 2019. Coliform itself is a warning sign; E. coli means sewage or manure reached the water

Farm chemicals

atrazine in 1 of 12 samples, highest 0.1 µg/L (limit 3); alachlor not detected in 12 samples

Metals

cadmium in 1 of 10 samples, highest 1.8 µg/L (limit 5); barium in 9 of 9 samples, highest 21.3 µg/L (limit 2,000); thallium in 1 of 13 samples, highest 4.4 µg/L (limit 2, 1 over); chromium, mercury, selenium not detected in 10 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 Sandusky City; nitrate, arsenic, radionuclides, solvents, herbicides and metals from the entry points of the same system); non-detects counted as zero

PFAS

UCMR 5

4 samples in 2024 to 2025 at the entry point to the distribution system: none of the 29 PFAS detected

Ohio EPA 2020

1 plant tested (latest 2020-09): nothing detected for the six PFAS tested

Ohio EPA latest

1 plant sampled by Ohio EPA, most recently 2026-06 (Ohio EPA statewide sampling status map)

Firefighting foam: 5 fire departments or other holders in Erie County registered 266 gallons of PFAS-based AFFF foam with Ohio EPA, 20 gallons in opened containers; the state is collecting it for disposal so it is never sprayed again.

Lithium: not detected in 4 UCMR 5 samples at Sandusky 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 OH2201411; results in nanograms per litre (parts per trillion) · Ohio EPA PFAS

Lead at the tap

Latest period

5 ppb in the sampling period ending 2025-12

Highest since 2016

13 ppb (2022-12); 1 of 8 periods above 10 ppb

Service lines

10,363 inventoried: 6,676 lead, 50 galvanized needing replacement, 1,834 unknown, 1,803 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: 49% of the homes here were built before 1960 and 24% before 1940, when lead service lines, lead solder and lead paint were common; 76% 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 Sandusky City (OH2201411), 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: aeration, corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, powdered activated carbon, sand or media filtration.

Measured fluoride: 0.94 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.9 to 1.03 mg/L across 10 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 96.1% of Erie 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 Sandusky City (OH2201411); 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

Raw water

17 detections at the intake across 4 bloom seasons (2016 to 2021); none since 2024

Treated water

never detected after treatment

Monitoring

598 samples from 2016 to 2026, latest 2026-08-24

Raw-water readings show what the plant has to remove; any detection at the intake triggers weekly paired raw and treated-water testing until two clean weeks, and carbon, ozone or chlorine destroys the toxin in nearly every case. The ten-day advisory levels for treated water are 0.3 µg/L for children under six and 1.6 µg/L for everyone else. Since November 2022 the bloom season runs June through November (sampling continues into early December), with treated water tested every two weeks the rest of the year; the 2016 to 2022 rule monitored year-round and stepped testing up to three days a week when raw water passed 5 µg/L.

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

glacial till (clay-rich, poor yields), part of the Lake Maumee Lacustrine Aquifer (lacustrine setting); wells there yield < 5 gallons a minute, deposits < 25 ft thick

Bedrock

Delaware and Columbus Limestones, yielding 25 - 100 gpm to a well

Setting

Limestone; water table 5-15 ft down, 7-10 in/yr recharge, clay loam soil (hydrogeologic setting 7Fd); pesticide index 171

Karst

26 karst and spring points in ODNR's inventory inside the ZIP (13 field-verified), 0.3 per square mile

Well logs

584 drilled wells on file (14.4 per 1,000 residents), median 35 ft deep, 13 gallons a minute median test yield, water 10 ft down

Aquifers

84% of wells in bedrock, 16% in sand, gravel and other unconsolidated material; typical well drilled 1991, 206 since 2000; uses: Monitor 248, Domestic 244

Geology

60% of the ZIP is a sensitive geologic setting, where thin or sandy cover leaves the aquifer open to what soaks in from the surface; its population center sits on Silurian-Devonian limestone and dolomite known to form karst, under less than 20 ft of drift; 6 field-verified sinkholes and 13 probable sinkholes inside the ZIP, where surface water can pour straight into the aquifer; 7 verified springs (Ohio EPA and ODNR Geological Survey)

Injection wells

5 Class V injection wells on Ohio EPA's books inside this ZIP (3 active): 3 large septic, 2 vehicle waste; these put fluids underground above or into drinking water aquifers

Urban setting

1 Ohio EPA Urban Setting Designation area touches this ZIP (Sandusky, City of): a finding that groundwater there is not used for drinking, which lets contaminated sites close without cleaning the aquifer to drinking standards

Water table

E-10 OH monitoring well (USGS), 10.8 mi away: water 48.3 ft below ground on 2026-09-08; averaged 39.9 ft in 2015 to 2019 and 47.7 ft over the latest year, so the table is running about 7.8 ft lower; range 4.1 to 65.2 ft over 4,165 readings since 2015

Nitrate risk

EPA researchers put the chance that a public water system in the Pipe Creek subwatershed exceeds the nitrate limit at 27% if it draws on groundwater and 43% 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 Vickery Environmental (Sandusky County), 14.9 mi away: 59 ft deep in limestone or dolomite (Undiff Salina Dolom aquifer); bedrock 43 ft down; wells there yield 5 to 25 gallons a minute; sampled on the standard cycle

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

the population center sits on Silurian-Devonian limestone and dolomite known to form karst, under less than 20 ft of drift; 6 field-verified and 13 probable sinkholes inside the ZIP, 7 verified springs; nearest verified sinkhole 4.4 mi from the center

Wellhead protection

less than half a percent of this ZIP lies inside any public water system's five-year wellhead protection area

River intakes

2% in the Lake Erie critical assessment zone

Vulnerability index

DRASTIC 151 (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

15.7 million gallons a day design flow; a major facility; the system has combined sewer overflows

Compliance

1 of the last 12 quarters with a violation; currently in violation (not significant)

Combined sewer overflows: 15 outfalls inside this ZIP, 15 within 3 miles, permitted to City of Sandusky Wpc. In heavy rain these release untreated sewage mixed with storm water.

Other discharge permits: 11 facilities inside this ZIP other than sewage plants hold a Clean Water Act permit (factories, water plants, quarries, package plants, storm water); 1 in significant noncompliance; 19 facility-quarters with a violation in the last three years; largest: Okamoto Sandusky Manufacturing Llc (in significant noncompliance).

Sewage sludge: 9 farm fields covering 396 acres inside this ZIP are permitted for spreading treated biosolids, mostly from Vermilion Wpcf (141 acres), Huron Basin Wwtp (106 acres), Danbury Twp Wwtp (104 acres); 2 fields have drawn a complaint (Ohio EPA). Biosolids carry nutrients and, increasingly under scrutiny, PFAS.

Sludge source: 1 permitted biosolids generator is inside this ZIP; nearest Sandusky WWTP, 1.7 mi away (a major plant); 3 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA).

State water loans: 3 projects inside this ZIP have borrowed $46.9 million from Ohio EPA's revolving loan funds since 2016 (2 sewer, storm water and runoff projects for $44.8 million; 1 drinking water project for $2.1 million), with $4.0 million of principal forgiven. Largest: Mills Street High Rate Treatment Facility (Sandusky, 2023, $41.6 million). Below-market loans are how most Ohio treatment plants and water mains get rebuilt.

Sewer planning: this ZIP falls in the Sandusky FPA; 60% of it is assigned to Erie County as the designated sewage management agency under Ohio's Clean Water Act section 208 plan (generic and specific prescriptions); 4 agencies share the ZIP; 24% has no designated agency, which usually means septic systems. The 208 plan decides who may build and extend sewers.

Stormwater: 29% of this ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA's regulated MS4 areas, mostly the Perkins Township storm sewer system (6 permit holders overlap the ZIP); 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). 18 sites with an address in this ZIP hold their own industrial stormwater permits (Toft's Dairy Inc, Rhetech Colors, Cross View Marine Services and others) (EPA Facility Finder).

Plants inside this ZIP: City of Sandusky Wpc (15.7 MGD, major, CSO).

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 64% of the land, recreation (bacteria) 73%, fish consumption 26%, drinking-water source 0% (that use is assessed on only 19% of the ZIP)

Causes listed

bacteria (pathogens) (73%), sediment and silt (64%), altered hydrology (26%)

Cleanup plans

73% of the land is under a TMDL pollution budget

Watersheds here: Pipe Creek (not supporting); Plum Brook-Frontal Sandusky Bay (not assessed).

Lake Erie's Sandusky Basin Shoreline covers 22% of this ZIP's footprint and fails its aquatic-life, recreation, fish-consumption and drinking-water uses; Lake Erie's Sandusky Basin Open Water covers 3% of this ZIP's footprint and fails its fish-consumption and drinking-water uses and supports its recreation use (aquatic-life not assessed). That water is left out of the land shares above.

Fish advisories (Ohio EPA): Lake Erie: common carp six meals a year, channel catfish one meal a month, freshwater drum one meal a month and 6 more species (PCBs, mercury); Resthaven Pond 8: channel catfish one meal a month, largemouth bass one meal a month, common carp two meals a week (mercury). Steelhead trout from Lake Erie or any of its tributaries: one meal a month (PCBs). Statewide, every other fish is one meal a week because of mercury.

Nearest stream assessment (Ohio EPA): Pipe Creek At Sandusky @ Columbus Ave. on the Pipe Creek, 0.5 mi away, draining 23 square miles: non attainment of its warmwater use; fish IBI 23 of 60 (2009); bug ICI 22 of 60 (2009); habitat QHEI 41.5 of 100. 8 assessed sites inside the ZIP, 3 within 3 miles, 14 within 10. Scores above about 40 (IBI), 36 (ICI) and 60 (QHEI) mean a healthy warmwater stream.

Stream designations (Ohio EPA water quality standards): 39.4 miles of designated streams cross this ZIP: 24.5 mi warmwater habitat, 14.8 mi coldwater habitat. Nearest specially protected stream: the West Branch Huron river (Slate run (RM 10.52) to the mouth), 10 mi away, a Superior High Quality Water. Exceptional and coldwater streams are the state's healthiest; modified and limited-resource waters are channelized or ditched.

Critical habitat: federally designated critical habitat for the piping plover (endangered, 2001) crosses this ZIP, so federal permits for work in those waters must avoid harming it (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

PFAS in the river (Ohio EPA large river survey): at Sandusky R. At Fremont @ Tiffin Rd., 23.2 mi away, the water carried 64.6 ng/L of total PFAS (PFOA 3.2, PFOS 1.6 ng/L); fish fillets held 18.31 ng/g in catfish. 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 Erie County used about 80 metric tons of pesticide active ingredient, 313 kg per square mile, 38th of Ohio's 88 counties. Largest: glyphosate 31 t, metolachlor 13 t, atrazine 11 t, 2,4-D 3 t, glufosinate 2 t. Atrazine, the corn herbicide, is the pesticide that most often shows up in Ohio tap water after spring rains; this county used 11 t of it.

Farms (2022 Census of Agriculture): 317 farms work 77,157 acres of Erie County, with 41.5% of its land in cropland, 243 acres to a farm. 3,727 cattle, 718 laying hens, 153 broilers, 131 turkeys; 23,665 acres of corn and 33,197 of soybeans. Sales $205 million, 4% 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

• Sandusky92% of residentsDrains to Lake Erie
• Lake Erie8% of residentsDrains to Lake Erie

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

H2Ohio: 6 state water-quality projects inside this ZIP (B-Marsh Reconnection; Cedar Point Causeway; Mills Creek Floodplain Enhancement); nearest Mills Creek Floodplain Enhancement, inland floodplain wetland, funded 2024, in progress, 1.4 mi away: The Ohio EPA lists the Mills Creek watershed as impaired for aquatic life due to excess nutrients, low oxygen, bacteria, and sediment. This project improves the...; 3 within 5 miles, 13 within 15. H2Ohio pays for wetlands, farm practices and lead line work to cut the nutrients behind Lake Erie's algae.

Source water: 2% is in the Lake Erie critical assessment zone around the Sandusky City and Huron City intakes.

Watershed grants: 2 state or federal runoff projects inside this ZIP (2 SWIF); nearest "Perkins Township Services Complex Pervious Concrete Project" by Perkins Township (stormwater management, SWIF), 0.5 mi away; 3 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA project lists: Section 319 and GLRI through fiscal 2023, SWIF through 2017).

Road salt: 2 state chloride-reduction grants inside this ZIP; nearest went to Erie County Commissioners (equipment, 2024-2025), 0.7 mi away; 2 in Erie County. H2Ohio pays for brine makers, calibrated spreaders and covered salt barns so less chloride reaches streams and wells.

Lake Erie coast: 38% of this ZIP lies inside Ohio's Coastal Management Area, the strip along Lake Erie where shore structures, erosion and public access are regulated by ODNR's Office of Coastal Management.

Lake level: Lake Erie at Marblehead, 7.8 mi from this ZIP's center, stood at 572.4 ft above sea level (IGLD 1985) in July 2026, 0.1 ft below the 1991 to 2020 average for that month; the last 12 months averaged 571.4 ft. The record monthly high was 574.7 ft in June 2019, when high water ate at bluffs and flooded marinas; the low since 1990 was 569.8 ft in January 2001 (NOAA).

The population center sits in the Pipe Creek subwatershed; its water runs on through Lake Erie.

In 2015 Erie County drew about 37 million gallons a day of fresh water (USGS): 12 million for public supply (1% from wells, 75,500 people served at 43 gallons a person a day at home), 9.1 million for industry, 7 million for irrigation, 1 million for mining.

EnviroAtlas, Pipe Creek: 100 to 200 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program; 11,495 acres of grain crops; 70 miles of streams (1.4 per square mile); water use of 1.4 million gallons a day for homes and 366 thousand for farms; 34.9 inches of rain and snow a year; 10.8 kg of nitrogen per hectare falling from the air each year; farm nitrogen of 0.5 kg per hectare a year as manure and 31.1 kg as synthetic fertilizer; 25% of the farmland sits on drained hydric soils; potentially restorable wetlands on farmland cover 25% of the subwatershed; 17% of the land is paved or roofed; 34% of the stream banks keep natural cover (EPA EnviroAtlas national metrics, 2010s vintages).

Stream permits: 9% 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; 7% drains toward high-quality waters farther down and might qualify for the Army Corps' blanket nationwide permits after a field screening and 58% 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

$62,082 median

Income spread

20% of households earn under $25,000 a year, 27% $100,000 or more and 5.2% $200,000 or more

Rent

$922 a month, median gross

Owner-occupied

61% of 17,171 occupied homes; 58% of owners carry a mortgage

Typical home built

1962

Value spread

26% of owner-occupied homes are worth under $100,000 and 3.5% $500,000 or more; income per person $34,855 a year

Moved in

the typical owner moved in in 2009, the typical renter in 2017

Median age

40.0 years

Commute

18 minutes each way on average, 8% of commuters travel 45 minutes or more, 5% work from home

Housing stock

66% single-family detached, 15% in buildings of 5 or more units, 3% mobile homes

Vacancy

14% of 20,068 housing units are vacant: 3.2% for rent, 4.0% for sale, 3.8% held for seasonal or occasional use, 3.3% other, such as homes held off the market, in probate or abandoned

Owner costs

19% of owners with a mortgage and 13% of owners without one spend 30% or more of income on housing

Evictions

8.12 eviction filings a year per 100 renter households in 2016 to 2018, 4.94 ending in a judgement (about 428 filings a year; Eviction Lab)

Fair market rent

$1,150 a month for a two-bedroom (one-bedroom $920, three-bedroom $1,440): HUD's fiscal 2026 small-area fair market rent, the benchmark for housing vouchers in the Erie County metro area

Tax returns

19,670 returns for 2022 averaging $57,491 of adjusted gross income; 35% reported under $25,000 and 3% reported $200,000 or more; 20% claimed the earned income credit and 29% were filed by people 60 or older (IRS)

Subsidized housing

2 public housing developments with 251 units (Erie Metropolitian Housing Authority); 5 tax-credit (LIHTC) properties with 454 low-income units, newest placed in service 2014; 7 HUD-assisted multifamily properties with 259 assisted units (Section 8 and similar contracts). Housing vouchers used in private rentals are not counted

Banks

11 full-service bank branches from 8 banks inside this ZIP (FDIC); 4 credit union branches from 3 credit unions (NCUA)

Strain

44% of renters pay 30% or more of income in rent; 10.1% of households have no vehicle; the median renter spends 26.3% of income on rent; the median owner with a mortgage spends 18.3% 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

12,541 one-family houses, 671 two-family houses, 116 three-family houses, 1,274 condominiums, 9 manufactured homes; also 215 apartment buildings and 876 other residential parcels

Lot

median 0.18 acres (condominiums left out)

The atlas has only the parcel list here so far: 14,611 homes with address, land-use class, lot size and, where the county's upload carries one, a link to each parcel's page at the county auditor, from OGRIP's Ohio Statewide Parcels (Erie County; upload of Jun 29, 2023). Year built, size, values and sales come from each county auditor's own appraisal records, which are being added county by county outward from Franklin County. The Erie County Auditor's site shows each parcel's full record.

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: OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels, Ohio Department of Administrative Services (Erie County, upload of Jun 29, 2023); residential parcels placed in ZIPs by the atlas; neighborhood boundaries as the cities publish them (the layers used here are named once the houses load); 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

119 single-family houses, 5 units in buildings of five or more, 0 in duplexes and small buildings

Value

$47 million of construction at the value declared on the permits

By year

2016: 5, 2017: 2, 2018: 6, 2019: 6, 2020: 18, 2021: 14, 2022: 20, 2023: 16, 2024: 13, 2025: 24, 2026 through July: 22

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

+64% from 2020 to 2025

Last year

+11% in 2025

Since 2000

prices stand at 1.9 times their 2000 level

Series

tracked since 1977

Zillow's typical home value here is $186K (2026-07), up 1% over the year, up 32% over five years and up 91% over ten. Typical asking rent $1,866 a month (2026-07), up 17% over the year.

On the market (Realtor.com, August 2026): median asking price $229,000, $172 per square foot for a typical 1,425 sq ft listing; 120 active listings, 56 new this month; listings spend a median 54 days on the market; 20% of listings have cut their price. Realtor.com flags this ZIP's figures this month as low quality (120 active listings), so the asking price is not a market median.

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

Sandusky City 62% of residents

33.3 effective mills (84.0 gross); $2,331 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 22.5, bonds 2.5, improvements 1.6, emergency 2.2, inside millage 3.5, library/recreation/safety 1.0.

Perkins Local 33% of residents

26.4 effective mills (69.3 gross); $1,846 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 19.0, improvements 1.1, inside millage 5.2, library/recreation/safety 1.0.

Municipal income tax

Sandusky 1.25% (62% 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

Sandusky City none (62% of residents), Perkins Local none (33% of residents), Margaretta Local none (5% of residents). About a third of Ohio districts levy one.

Sales tax

6.75% combined rate in Erie County: Ohio's 5.75% plus county and transit levies.

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

• Ohio Edison investor-owned100% of residentsFirstEnergy Corp.

Ohio Edison outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 234 minutes (114 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 1.3 interruptions a year.

Ohio Edison standard service offer price, 2024: 16.18 cents per kWh, about $127 a month for the average home, for the 251,751 residential customers who have not chosen a supplier; the other 706,029 pay Ohio Edison 7.3 cents per kWh for delivery plus their supplier's price (EIA-861).

Ohio Edison solar and meters, 2024: 3,963 customers run net-metered solar (67.8 MW, 3,791 of them homes); 26% of its 1,094,550 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters, 8% drive-by automated reads (EIA-861).

Energy burden: households here spend an average 3.0% of income on electricity, gas and other fuels (about $2,108 a year against $69,944 of income); the 44% of households below 80% of the area median income spend 7.3%, and 26% 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

69% of the 17,171 homes here heat with utility gas.

Utility gas 69%Electricity 26%Propane or LP 4%Oil, wood, other 2%

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

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 2 companies operating in Erie County: Columbia Gas of Ohio, Enbridge Gas Ohio.

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: Renewable Energy Services of Ohio, 8.5 mi (biomass, 2 MW).

1 plant within 10 miles totalling 2 MW: 1 biomass (2 MW).

Solar: Wheatsborough Solar, 125 MW AC (2025), 525 acres, 9.1 mi away; 2 utility-scale solar farms within 15 miles.

Nuclear: Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station (894 MW) is 22.8 miles away, inside its 50-mile ingestion pathway zone, where crops, milk and water would be checked after an accident.

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

10.7 miles of transmission pipe cross this ZIP: Columbia Gas Trans Co 6.9 mi, East Ohio Gas Co 2.1 mi, NEXUS Gas Transmission 1.7 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

• AT&T Ohio99% of residentsIncumbent local exchange carrier

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

Internet

Served, 100/20 Mbps or better 99%Underserved, 25/3 to 100/20 1%Unserved, under 25/3 0%

Fiber reaches 94% of locations, cable 56%; a year earlier 98% were served.

Of 17,171 households, 69% subscribe to cable, fiber or DSL, 16% 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 284 Mbps, upload 202.8 Mbps, 12 ms latency, across 1,240 tests from up to 559 devices in 204 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 100% · 5G 98%
• T-Mobile4G 99% · 5G 98%
• Verizon4G 98% · 5G 92%

Registered towers: 31 antenna structures registered with the FCC inside this ZIP and 23 within 3 miles of its center; the tallest inside is a 404-foot tower. 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 305.5 Mbps, upload 28.2 Mbps, latency 32 ms over 217 tests from up to 159 devices in 90 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

5 public stations inside this ZIP with 6 Level 2 and 19 DC fast ports; the nearest of any kind is Foster Cadillac, 0.6 mi. 5 stations within 5 miles of the ZIP's population center, 4 with DC fast charging.

Networks here: EV Connect (2), Blink (1), Tesla Destination (1), and 1 station on other networks.

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

99 stops inside this ZIP: Sandusky Transit System (99).

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

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

Transit

67% of residents live in a block group whose population center is within three-quarters of a mile of a stop in the EPA's 2020 transit file, on average 447 metres away

Mix of uses

employment mix 0.57 and mix of homes and job types 0.59 on the EPA's 0 to 1 scales, where 1 is the most varied

Car-free households

10.1% 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

13 with gates; railroads: Norfolk Southern (14). Busiest crossing: 44 trains a day reported; fastest line 79 mph.

Collisions: 5 crossing incidents reported to the FRA inside this ZIP since 2010 (3 killed), the latest in 2024; most at City Street/Remington Av in Sandusky (1).

Train accidents: 9 rail equipment accidents inside this ZIP since 2010 (3 derailments), with 1 hazardous materials car releasing cargo; 1 killed; $3.5 million in damage. Latest: 2026, other (describe in narrative) (Norfolk Southern Railway Company); the most common cause here is switch improperly lined.

Erie County has logged 85 rail accidents since 2010, 43 of them derailments, 1 hazmat car releasing (FRA Form 54). Yard mishaps at walking speed dominate; main-line derailments are the rare, dangerous ones.

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 1963, 3 built before 1950; oldest 1894, USR 6 over Mill Creek

Busiest

I80 Oh Tpk over Ditch, 40,413 vehicles a day (2015 count)

Owners

state 36, county 21

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

17,930 a day on I-80, 41% of its traffic

Driving

about 1.1M vehicle-miles a day on the 947 counted segments inside the ZIP; the typical segment carries 5,299 vehicles

Busiest local road

county road 5, 24,002 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: 20 people died in 19 crashes inside this ZIP in 2020 to 2024 (3 pedestrians, 3 motorcyclists); 5 involved a drinking driver and 9 happened in the dark; most on US-250 MILAN RD (5). That is 9.9 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

Hinde (88D), Huron, 5.6 mi, public use

Amtrak

Sandusky station, 0.9 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

31% of tests at or above EPA's 4 pCi/L action level · median 2.4 · highest 87.3

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

13% of the ZIP's land is in that floodplain, and another 1.3% is in the 0.2% (500-year) zone; 1.7% 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 5.7 inches in 24 hours (2.6 in a single hour, 4.3 in six); a 2-year storm 2.5, 10-year 3.6, 25-year 4.4, 500-year 7.6 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: Huron River at Milan OH, 10.4 mi away, draining 371 square miles. Record flow 49,600 cubic feet a second at a stage of 31.1 ft on 1969-07-05; the highest since 2016 was 13,500 on 2018-11-02 (USGS, 59 annual peaks, 1950 to 2025).

285 federal flood insurance policies are in force in this ZIP, covering $58 million of buildings; 86% of them are in a mapped high-risk zone; the typical policy costs $626 a year (about 2% of households).

461 federal flood insurance claims from this ZIP since 1978, 84 since 2010, paying about $2.7 million in all; the worst year was 1982 with 107 claims; 23% of claims came from outside the mapped high-risk zone.

Levees: 5 levee or floodwall segments totalling 0.9 miles cross this ZIP (Erie Bayview Levee), holding back Bay View, Sandusky Bay. 5 segments are not accredited, so the land behind them stays mapped as floodplain.

Community status: Sandusky takes part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 09/01/22. Erie County's unincorporated areas take part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 09/01/22.

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

• Winter weather83
• Hail80

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 45, tornado 72, winter weather 83.

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

52.0°F average; typical January low 22°, July high 82°

Hot and cold days

9 days a year reach 90°F; 104 nights fall below freezing, 3 below 0°F; 40 days never climb above freezing

Rain and snow

34.0 inches of precipitation on 70 days with a tenth of an inch or more; 33 inches of snow on 12 days with an inch or more, snow on the ground 43 days

Degree days

5,653 heating, 953 cooling (base 65°F): the higher the heating number, the bigger the winter gas bill

Drought (U.S. Drought Monitor): since 2020 Erie County has spent 38 weeks in moderate drought or worse, 6 of them severe or worse (most recently 6 weeks in 2025), and 97 weeks at least abnormally dry. The worst since 2000 was severe drought in 2025/10; 6% of all weeks since 2000 were in drought. As of 2026-09-01: no drought.

Long run (NOAA, Erie County): the average year ran 51.4 °F over 1996 to 2025 against 49.9 °F over 1901 to 1930, 1.6 °F warmer (1.6 °F warmer than 1951 to 1980); the warmest year on record was 2024 at 54.3 °F, and 2025 came in at 51.2 °F. Precipitation averaged 37.4 inches a year lately against 34.3 a century ago, 9% more; the wettest year was 2011 with 55.6 inches, and 2025 brought 32.7. More rain in bigger bursts is what strains storm sewers and septic fields.

Stations: Sandusky (1.4 mi, temperature and precipitation); Norwalk WWTP (12.6 mi, 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 34.5 µg/m³ (24-hour standard 35)

Ozone

66 ppb, 4th-highest daily 8-hour reading at Sheffield, 31.6 mi away (standard 70)

County AQI

Erie County has no monitor of its own, so EPA publishes no daily index for it

Air toxics

20 in a million lifetime cancer risk from outdoor air toxics across Erie County (EPA AirToxScreen 2020), mostly formaldehyde (15) and carbon tetrachloride (3)

Permitted sources

40 permitted air sources inside this ZIP under the Clean Air Act (3 major, Title V), 4 synthetic minor; 1 had a violation in the last 3 years; $62,698 in penalties in the last 5 years. Notable: Polynt Composites USA, Inc (major); Okamoto Sandusky Manufacturing LLC (major); Ventra Sandusky, LLC (major); Metaltek International, Sandusky International Division (1 violation quarter) (11 permanently closed sources also on file) (EPA ECHO)

Air standards

Erie County meets every national air quality standard and carries no maintenance plan (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

23 facilities have reported toxic chemical releases or transfers to EPA's inventory from inside this ZIP, and 2 sites appear in the Superfund program's list (most assessed and never listed).

378 EPA-registered facilities of all kinds in this ZIP: 49 brownfield sites in the cleanup program (1040 Huron Street, 1310 Cleveland Road, 208 Franklin and 410 E. Market Streets), 169 hazardous-waste handlers, 55 with air permits, 41 with water discharge permits.

Nearest landfill: City of Sandusky Closed Landfill, 2.8 mi from the center, municipal solid waste 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: 8 sites inside this ZIP (Bayfront Urban Redev 2nd Phase, W Shorline Dr & W Water St; Bayfront Urban Revitalization, Sandusky, 611 W Shoreline Dr; Bechtel-McLaughlin Inc and more), 7 within 3 miles of the population center; the nearest is Bechtel-McLaughlin Inc, 1.6 mi from the center, covenant not to sue, voluntary cleanup (VAP).

Voluntary cleanups: 7 properties inside this ZIP hold an Ohio EPA covenant not to sue after a Voluntary Action Program cleanup, 2 carry an environmental covenant restricting future use, 1 is under institutional controls; 7 such properties within 3 miles of the population center, nearest Bechtel-McLaughlin Inc, Sandusky, 1.5 mi. These are former industrial and commercial sites certified clean enough to reuse.

Solid waste: 1 licensed waste facility inside this ZIP (1 compost site); nearest Ninke Lawn Service (compost site), 0.8 mi from the center; 5 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): 90 active RCRA handlers inside this ZIP; 5 had a violation in the last 3 years; $8,000 in penalties in the last 5 years. Notable: Hamad Tire and Auto Services (7 violation quarters); Okamoto Sandusky Manufacturing LLC (5 violation quarters); Kelko Products (2 violation quarters). Nearest treatment, storage or disposal facility: Vickery Environmental Inc in Vickery, 13.7 mi. Handlers include every business that generates hazardous waste, from body shops to chemical plants.

Underground tanks: 38 sites with 111 registered underground storage tanks in use (242 more tanks closed over the years); 198 leaking-tank releases on record, 3 open at the time, 70 inside a drinking-water source protection area; 11 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 Walt’s Auto Repair, Sandusky OH, 0.7 mi away (7 inside this ZIP); the nearest household battery drop-off is Pedego Electric Bikes Sandusky, Sandusky, 1.8 mi away (4 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

84,665 lb to the air, 0 lb to surface water, 0 lb to land or underground injection; another 272,979 lb was shipped off site for disposal or release

Chemicals

Styrene 65,825 lb (carcinogen), Methyl isobutyl ketone 4,846 lb (carcinogen), Methyl methacrylate 4,488 lb

Carcinogens

75,858 lb of the on-site releases were chemicals EPA lists as carcinogens

Facilities

Polynt Composites Usa Inc. (Chemicals): 64,701 lb, mostly Styrene; Okamoto Sandusky Manufacturing Llc (Transportation Equipment): 11,003 lb, mostly Methyl isobutyl ketone; Ventra Sandusky Llc (Transportation Equipment): 5,612 lb, mostly Styrene

Trend

73,021 lb on site in 2020, so up 16% over four years

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: Bellevue Upground Reservoir No. 3, 12.8 mi, condition poor (water supply, 18 ft high, 227 acre-feet, built 1900, on Snyders Ditch - Offstream, local government owned).

No inventoried dam sits inside this ZIP.

"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: F4 on 1953-06-08, 118 mi track (17 killed, 379 injured).

17 federal declarations for Erie County since Ohio's first in 1956 (11 major disasters): severe storm 5, flood 4, other 2. Latest: Covid-19 Pandemic (2020).

2 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more within 25 miles since 1970, the largest M2.8 11 km NW of Put-in-Bay, Ohio in 2007.

Warnings since 2015 (National Weather Service, Erie County): 13 tornado warnings (2015: 1, 2017: 2, 2022: 1, 2023: 6, 2024: 2, 2025: 1), 179 severe thunderstorm warnings, 21 flash flood warnings, 35 flood warnings and 54 flood advisories, 9 winter storm or blizzard warnings, 26 heat warnings or advisories, 6 extreme cold or wind chill warnings, 3 snow squall warnings; 945 products in all.

Mitigation grants (FEMA): 3 hazard mitigation projects in Erie County since 2009, worth $309,350 ($245,716 federal); mostly studies, mitigation planning, advanced assistance. Largest: studies for Erie County Office Of Homeland Security & Emergency Management, $149,350 (fiscal 2009).

Disaster aid to households: 342 households in this ZIP registered with FEMA after 2 declared disasters; 256 were approved for $1.2 million of housing and other-needs help. Registrations by event: severe storms, tornadoes, straight line winds and flooding (2006): 178; COVID-19 pandemic (2020): 164.

73 severe weather reports for Erie County since 2016 in NOAA's Storm Events log: 54 damaging thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 5 flash floods, 2 tornadoes. Largest hail 1.75 in (Aug 12, 2023); strongest measured gust 67 mph (Aug 11, 2021); 2 injuries; about $5.6 million in reported damage, the costliest being flash floods on Aug 23, 2023 ($2.5M). Zone-wide advisories add 9 lakeshore flooding, 6 winter storms, 5 high wind.

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 (22), unidentified material or sheen (17), diesel and fuel oil (11)

Largest

about 1,500 gallons of asphalt / bitumen in 2025, Perkins Twp

Reached water

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

By year

2021: 9, 2022: 12, 2023: 14, 2024: 6, 2025: 11, 2026: 11

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

0 producing, 6 plugged or abandoned, the rest drilled but idle, gas storage, orphan, expired permits or unknown

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

GYPSUM

industrial minerals, 5 acres inside the ZIP

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: 1 working operation inside this ZIP in 2015 (Wagner Quarry, limestone); nearest Wagner Quarry (limestone, Hanson Aggregates Midwest, Inc., 1,512,762 tons sold), 1.8 mi away in Erie County; 1 within 3 miles, 4 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

Bennington silt loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes; Bennington makes up 85% of the unit, 1% slope

Water

somewhat poorly drained; flooding none, ponding none

Septic

Very limited for a leach field under Ohio's rule

Basements

Very limited for dwellings with basements

Farmland

Prime farmland if drained

Elevation

604 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

East Sandusky Bay

local conservation area, 1,086 acres inside the ZIP

Bayview West Marsh

private conservation land, 215 acres inside the ZIP

Nearest state park: Marblehead Lighthouse State Park, 7.2 mi.

Protected land: 15.6% of this ZIP (8,391 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): 5,325 acres federal, 1,446 acres local, 701 acres private, 593 acres state. Largest: Plum Brook Station (federal agency), 5,325 acres; East Sandusky Bay (city), 1,087 acres; Resthaven Wildlife Area (ODNR), 539 acres. 5% of the ZIP is protected land open to the public.

Trails: no built named trail crosses this ZIP; nearest is the Cleveland Road Exercise Path, 5.6 mi from the ZIP's center. 11.3 miles of state bike route N-CP run through it (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: Mar-Lu at East Harbor State Park, 8.4 mi (0 within 5 miles); fishing access: Fishing Access at Marblehead Lighthouse State Park, 7.2 mi (0 within 5 miles); swim area: Boat Swim Area at Portage Lakes State Park, 67.7 mi (0 within 5 miles); campground: Camp Area C at East Harbor State Park, 9.5 mi (0 within 5 miles).

Lake Erie and tributary access: 29 public access sites inside this ZIP; nearest lakeshore site Sandusky Bay Pathway on Sandusky Bay (City of Sandusky), 1.7 mi away; 29 within 5 miles, 77 within 15. Nearest swimming beach: Lions Park on Sandusky Bay, 2.4 mi, 6 beaches within 10 miles. (ODNR coastal access inventory)

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

966 acres emergent wetland, 682 acres forested/shrub wetland, 322 acres pond. Largest single wetland: 125 acres of freshwater emergent wetland.

Vernal pools: 2 potential high-quality vernal pools covering 1.8 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: 2 of Ohio EPA's listed high-quality wetland sites (347 acres) are inside this ZIP; nearest is Pipe Creek WA (Ohio DNR), 66 acres, 2.4 mi away; 7 within 10 miles.

Mitigation sites: nearest Castalia Quarry, 7.1 mi away (a mitigation bank); 2 within 10 miles. These are wetlands and streams built or restored to replace ones filled under Clean Water Act permits.

Assessed wetland: 4 Ohio EPA study wetlands inside this ZIP; nearest Nasa #3, a mixed emergent marsh, 2.8 mi away: ORAM 34 of 100 (category 2) (surveyed 2003); 10 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 920 acres of marsh and swamp here, 1.7% 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

25%: 4% high intensity (downtown blocks, big-box lots), 8% medium (apartments, small-lot houses), 8% low (houses on larger lots), 5.0% open space (lawns, parks, golf courses, road verges)

Farmland

32%: 30% row crops, 1.3% pasture and hay

Crops 2025

of 14,235 cropped acres, 52% soybeans, 38% corn, 5% wheat and small grains (plus 3% wheat followed by soybeans, counted under soybeans), 4% hay and alfalfa; 2,704 acres of pasture and grass (USDA Cropland Data Layer)

Forest

10%, plus 0.9% grass and shrub

Water and wetland

27% open water, 4.0% wetland, 1.1% barren (quarries, strip mines, beaches)

Paved and roofed

12% 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

10% of the ZIP sits under tree canopy

Area

60.9 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

24.9% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 8.5% a graduate degree; 45.6% stopped at high school or earlier

Ages

20.7% under 18, 20.1% 65 or older

Race and origin

70.2% white, 15% Black, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 1.3% Asian, 8.3% other or two or more races

Born abroad

2.7% of residents (1,086 people); largest countries of birth: Colombia (182), Philippines (148), Thailand (104)

Veterans

7.5% of adults

Households

2.2 people per household on average; 33% of households are one person living alone, 34% married couples

Who lives here

27% of households include children, 31% someone 65 or over and 13.9% are a senior living alone; of people 15 and over, 40% are married, 39% never married, 13% divorced and 7% widowed

Poverty

18.2% of residents live below the poverty line, 29.2% of children and 12.8% of people 65 and over; the Gini index of income inequality is 0.45 (0 would mean every household earns the same, 1 that one household earns everything). County-wide, the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate is 13.1% (19.7% of children) with a median household income of $72,400 (SAIPE)

Ancestry

most often reported: German 27%, Irish 12%, English 9%

Movers

12.9% of residents lived somewhere else a year earlier, 1.0% in another state and 1.5% abroad

Language

1.0% of households speak limited English; 1.7% speak Spanish at home

Group quarters

1,655 of the 40,416 people counted here in 2020 (4.1%) lived in group quarters: 929 in nursing facilities, 570 in other group housing such as shelters, group homes and worker dormitories, 104 in prisons and jails, 39 in juvenile facilities, 13 in other institutions (2020 Census)

Moving

2,998 people moved into Erie County between the returns they filed in 2022 and 2023 and 3,118 moved out (net −120, 59,210 stayed put); most arrivals came from Lorain, OH (498), Huron, OH (443), Cuyahoga, OH (207); most leavers went to Lorain, OH (493), Huron, OH (488), Sandusky, OH (223) (IRS)

Metro or rural

USDA rural-urban continuum code 3 of 9 for Erie County: metro - counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population

Nonprofits

247 tax-exempt organizations registered to addresses in this ZIP, 34 of them reporting $1 million or more in income; 81% are 501(c)(3) charities and 15% churches or religious groups; largest: Firelands Regional Medical Center ($356 million), Goodwill Industries Of Erie Huron Ottawa & Sandusky Counties Inc ($16 million), Family Health Services Of Erie County ($15 million) (IRS)

County growth

Erie County went from 75,616 people in April 2020 to 73,296 in July 2025 (-3.1%): 3,132 births, 5,217 deaths and a net −62 from migration since 2020; in 2025 alone a net 135 left for elsewhere in the U.S. and 150 arrived from abroad (Census estimates)

Since 1900

First counted in 1840 with 12,599 people and 18,568 by 1850, Erie County counted 37,650 people in 1900, 52,565 in 1950, 75,909 in 1970, 79,623 in 2000 and 75,616 in 2020; it peaked at 79,655 in 1980 (1.9 times its 1900 size, decennial censuses)

Commuting area: USDA classes this ZIP as the core of a metropolitan area (rural-urban commuting area code 1 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: Health care and social assistance 4,373, Manufacturing 3,737, Retail 3,556. 46% of local jobs pay over $3,333 a month, and 47% of residents' jobs do.

Businesses: 1,124 establishments with 23,867 employees and $1.2 billion a year in payroll in 2023, at least 32 of them with 100 or more workers; most common: retail (217), health care and social assistance (167), restaurants and hotels (165), other services (113) (ZIP Business Patterns).

Workplace safety (OSHA): 76 inspections of workplaces in this ZIP since 2020 (1 after deaths or injury reports, 9 after complaints, 36 planned, 18 on referrals); most inspected: Imagine Baking, Inc. (4), Hk Cooperative, Inc. (4), Brown's Roofing & Construction (2). 1 worker death investigated since 2015 and 8 hospitalisations: 2022, employee is killed after falling through roof.

County labor market: Erie County's unemployment rate was 3.4% in July 2026 (4.8% a year earlier), with 39,958 people in the labor force and 1,347 looking for work. Employers in the county paid an average of $1,079 a week in the first quarter of 2026 (up 3.3% on the year) to 33,162 workers at 2,058 establishments, employment down 3.5%; the largest private sectors are restaurants and hotels (5,229 jobs, $474 a week), retail (5,099 jobs, $704 a week), manufacturing (4,634 jobs, $1,513 a week). (BLS)

Working-age residents: 62.9% of people 16 and over here are in the labor force, and 6.7% of the civilian labor force was unemployed, averaged over 2020 to 2024 (Census ACS). Residents' most common occupations: management and business 12%, production 12%, office and administrative support 11%; 6% are self-employed and 12% work for a government.

Federal money: in fiscal 2025 the federal government obligated $20 million in contracts performed in Erie County ($259 a resident) and $433 million in grants ($5,727 a resident), plus $125,000 in loan guarantees and loans and $544 million in direct payments to people and organizations (USAspending; Social Security, Medicare and most benefits are not counted).

County economy: Erie County produced $4.1 billion of real GDP in 2024 (2017 dollars, down 5.0% since 2019); personal income came to $63,347 a person in 2024, 18th of Ohio's 88 counties and up 18% since 2019 before inflation (BEA).

County type (USDA ERS, 2015 codes): Erie County is a nonmetro county with a recreation economy, with none of the ERS distress flags.

Opportunity zone: 10% 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: 76.7% drive alone, 10.4% carpool, 4.7% transit, 2.1% walk, 0.2% bike, 4.5% work from home (ACS).

Where residents work: 45% inside this ZIP; 5% in Huron (44839), 3% in Norwalk (44857), 3% in Port Clinton (43452) (shares of the 18,833 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

3.35% of those children were in jail or prison on census day 2010

Coverage

73% 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

58th percentile: poverty, unemployment, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, no health insurance

Household characteristics

60th: people 65 and over or 17 and under, disability, single-parent households, limited English

Racial and ethnic minority status

61st

Housing and transportation

58th: 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 42.8%, no leisure-time physical activity 31.5%

Chronic conditions

diabetes 16.0%, high blood pressure 43.2%, COPD 10.1%, cancer (any but non-melanoma skin cancer) 9.5%

Habits

current smoking 17.6%, binge drinking 15.0%, short sleep 39.3%

Mind

depression 25.1%, frequent mental distress 18.4%, feeling lonely 34.7%

Access

uninsured under 65 9.3%, yearly checkup 81.7%, dental visit 59.3%

Hardship

any disability 32.5%, food insecurity 18.3%

Heart and lungs

current asthma 11.5%, coronary heart disease 8.7%, stroke 4.5%, arthritis 33.5%

Keeping up

79.3% of adults with high blood pressure take medicine for it, 86.0% had a cholesterol check in 5 years

Social needs

housing insecurity 14.0%, no reliable transportation 9.6%, utility shut-off threat 10.7%, lacking emotional support 22.1%

Provider shortage

72% live in an area HRSA designates a primary care shortage area for its low-income residents (score 18 of 25); 72% live in an area HRSA designates a dental shortage area for its low-income residents (score 19 of 26); none for mental health (HRSA; higher scores mean greater need)

Coverage (Census)

6.4% of residents have no health insurance (2.6% of children); 23% are on Medicaid and 48% have coverage through an employer

Disability (Census)

16.2% of residents report a disability, 32% of those 65 and over

County (County Health Rankings 2025): Erie County sits in health group 4 of 10 among U.S. counties for population health (1 is healthiest) and group 4 for community conditions. Premature death 10,181 (Ohio 9,740) years of life lost before 75 per 100,000; one primary care doctor for every 1,291 people (Ohio 1,328), one mental health provider for every 354 people (Ohio 286), one dentist for every 1,620 people (Ohio 1,535); preventable hospital stays 2,863 (Ohio 3,033) per 100,000 Medicare enrollees; injury deaths 92.5 (Ohio 100.7) and suicides 14.0 (Ohio 14.7) per 100,000; infant deaths 9.1 (Ohio 7.0) per 1,000 births; teen births 17.8 (Ohio 17.4) per 1,000 girls 15 to 19; children in poverty 18.6 (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: 10 deaths in the 12 months ending December 2025 (18 a year earlier, 36 at the highest since 2020, in the 12 months ending January 2021), about 13.5 per 100,000 residents against 20.8 statewide (CDC provisional counts).

Cancer (NCI State Cancer Profiles): Erie County records 462 new cancers a year per 100,000 people, age-adjusted, for 2018 to 2022 (Ohio 472.9, U.S. 448.6), about 540 cases a year, with the rate stable; cancer deaths 156.3 per 100,000 (Ohio 160.3, U.S. 145.4), falling. By site, per 100,000 (Ohio in parentheses): lung 55.5 (63.6), colorectal 35.8 (38.4), female breast 123.8 (133), prostate 108.3 (120.8), bladder 23.8 (21.8), leukemia 13.8 (13).

Medicare: 21,419 people in Erie County were on Medicare in 2025 (29% of residents): 19,330 aged 65 or over and 2,090 younger people with disabilities. 49% chose a Medicare Advantage plan, 13% also had Medicaid and 86% had Part D drug coverage; enrollment is up 9% 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

287 beds · Level III trauma center · 1 general or critical-access hospital within 10 miles, 6 within 25.

Medicare rating: ★★★★☆ · emergency room: yes · typical ER visit 177 minutes door to discharge (Ohio median 155)

Patients' verdict: 69% would definitely recommend it, 72% rated their stay 9 or 10 out of 10 (★★★☆☆ patient-experience rating, 456 surveys).

Outcomes: 30-day death rates after heart failure 13.9% (about the national rate), heart attack 11.9% (about the national rate), pneumonia 15.9% (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: 15 inside this ZIP, nearest Erie County Job & Family Services, Sandusky, 0.3 mi away; 15 within 3 miles, 20 within 10. These federally funded clinics see anyone and charge on a sliding scale.

Veterans: nearest VA site is Sandusky VA Clinic, Sandusky (primary care outpatient clinic), 0.5 mi away; 1 VA site within 10 miles, 1 within 25; 1 inside this ZIP.

Providers: 1,433 active health care providers list a practice address in this ZIP: 262 physicians, 97 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, 55 dentists, 240 mental health professionals, 17 pharmacies, 2 urgent care centers, 4 hospitals, 15 nursing or assisted-living facilities, 18 home health or hospice agencies; most common physician specialties: Family Medicine (37), Internal Medicine (24), Emergency Medicine (15) (NPPES registry, August 2026).

Dialysis: 3 centers inside this ZIP, nearest Firelands Dialysis Center South, Sandusky, 0.6 mi away, 31 stations, Medicare ★★★☆☆ (Independent); 3 within 5 miles, 3 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

5 certified homes within 5 miles, 13 within 15; 4 inside this ZIP.

Medicare rating

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

Beds

138 certified

Ownership

Non profit, church related

Penalties

no federal fines or payment denials since 2023 (CMS)

In this ZIP: CONCORD CARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER (4★, 50 beds); OHIO VETERANS HOME (4★, 427 beds); PARKVUE HEALTH CARE CENTER (5★, 84 beds) and 1 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

93 offenses: 3 murders, 12 rapes, 12 robberies, 66 aggravated assaults (3.9 per 1,000 residents; Ohio 3.2)

Property

640 offenses: 97 burglaries, 508 thefts, 31 vehicle thefts (26.7 per 1,000; Ohio 16.9)

Other

358 simple assaults, 236 vandalism reports, 193 drug offenses, 26 weapons violations

Reporting

12 months of 2024 on file; 23,981 residents served; this department covers the 62% of the ZIP's residents in its territory, the rest fall under others

Trend

violent offenses up 166% from 35 in 2023; property up 9% from 586

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

3 stations within 3 miles, 5 within 8. Inside this ZIP: Bay View Police Department; Erie County Sheriff's Office; Perkins Township Police Department; Sandusky Police Department.

Nearest post office: Sandusky Post Office, 0.2 mi; 1 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

5 stations within 3 miles, 9 within 8.

Inside this ZIP: Perkins Township Fire Department Station 2; Sandusky Fire Department Station 1; Sandusky Fire Department Station 3 and 3 more.

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, 2 within 8.

Open

about 60 hours a week

Building

62,817 square feet

Sandusky Library

2 buildings, serves 45K people, 2.5 visits per resident a year, 435K items lent, 939 programs, $4M annual income

Inside this ZIP: Sandusky Library.

Museums: 7 inside this ZIP (Follett House Museum, Heritage Society of Erie County, Museum of Carousel Art & History and 4 more); nearest Padawans Playground Interactive Childrens Museum, Sandusky, 0.6 mi away; 7 within 5 miles, 29 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

77% of residents live more than half a mile from a supermarket, 35% more than 1 mile

Without a car

54% live in a tract flagged for low income and low vehicle access; 10.1% of households have no vehicle (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Poverty

16.3% of residents below the poverty line

SNAP stores

7 supermarkets or superstores and 2 grocery stores inside this ZIP take SNAP, alongside 25 convenience stores, 1 farmers market, 12 other outlets (dollar, drug and discount stores); nearest supermarket or grocery store Bay Meats (grocery store), 0.1 mi from the ZIP's center, and the nearest supermarket or superstore Kroger, 0.5 mi; 8 supermarkets and grocery stores within 3 miles (USDA, 2026)

SNAP households

17% of households received SNAP benefits in the past year (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Setting

91% of residents in urban tracts, across 14 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

• Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility (structure) · National Historic Landmark
• Adams Street Double House (building)
• BOECKLING, G.A., (side-paddlewheel steamboat) (structure)
• and 112 more

Place names (USGS): 21 named communities (Crystal Rock, Wilmer, Bay View, Venice, Ranch Wood and more); 5 named streams end here (Cold Creek, Pipe Creek, Plum Brook, Sulphur Brook and more); 16 canal features, 2 points and capes. 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

• Sandusky City62% of residentsCity school district
• Perkins Local33% of residentsLocal school district
• Margaretta Local5% of residentsLocal school district

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

10 public schools inside this ZIP: Briar Middle School (3 stars); Furry Elementary School (2.5 stars); Meadowlawn Elementary School (3.5 stars); Monroe Preparatory Academy and 6 more. Nearest to the population center: Sandusky Middle School (3 stars), 0.4 mi; 4 within a mile, 10 within 3.

1 private school inside this ZIP with 498 students in kindergarten through 12th grade (1 religious): Sandusky Central Catholic School (498 students, Catholic) (NCES Private School Survey 2023-24; the survey's student counts, here and per school, exclude prekindergarten).

Enrolled here: 5,219 students attend the 10 public schools inside this ZIP with 2023-24 enrollment on file; 1 of them is a charter school (190 students), 17.4 students per teacher. 6 of them serve free meals to every student under the community eligibility provision. (NCES)

Enrollment: 6,048 residents attend kindergarten through 12th grade, 13% of them at private schools; 1,889 are in college or graduate school (Census ACS 2020 to 2024).

Money, fiscal 2023: Sandusky City took in $67 million, 39% from the state, 44% local and 17% federal, and spent $17,349 per pupil on day-to-day operations for 3,185 students, 60% of it on instruction; capital outlay $1.9 million (Census school finance survey via NCES).

Child poverty: the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts 34% of Sandusky City's school-age children below the poverty line (1,267 of 3,688 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 2 stars, progress 3 stars, gap closing 3 stars, early literacy 1 star, graduation 3 stars, college and career readiness 1 star

Achievement

performance index 59.9% of ODE's maximum score for the year (the average of the top 2% of district scores, not the highest score possible) (score 65.8, 66.2 the year before)

Graduation

90.8% of the class of 2024 graduated in four years; 47.9% of that class (graduates or not) showed college, career, workforce or military readiness

Spending

$12,815 per pupil in 2023-24 against $12,759 statewide

Teachers

average salary $75,527, 14 years of experience, 59.7% with a master's degree, 8.6% in their first years of teaching

Enrollment

3,082 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

Firelands Regional Medical Center School of Nursing is a private nonprofit two-year college with 73 students over the 2023-24 year.

5 institutions within 10 miles, 8 within 25. Inside this ZIP: Firelands Regional Medical Center School of Nursing; Ohio Business College-Sandusky; Sandusky Career Center.

Next nearest: Ohio Business College-Sandusky (2.3 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

• Sandusky (city)62% of residentsCity
• Perkins Township, Erie County31% of residentsTownship
• Margaretta Township, Erie County3% of residentsTownship

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

Ohio EPA grants 2025: 2 grants worth $24,245 went to Erie County Health Department, Erie County SWMD in this ZIP (1 recycling, 1 mosquito control).

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)

• Marcy Kaptur DU.S. House OH-9Toledo · since 1983 · site
• Theresa Gavarone ROhio Senate 2Bowling Green · since 2019 · site
• D. J. Swearingen ROhio House 89Huron · since 2019 · site

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