ZIP code 45817: Bluffton

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

33.2 µg/L yearly mean in 2019, the last year in the file (limit 80); worst yearly mean 121.5, highest single sample 168.8; 60 samples from 2012 to 2019

HAA5

36.9 µg/L yearly mean in the last year sampled (limit 60); worst yearly mean 40.2, highest sample 62.1; 60 samples

Sampled at

the entry points of Ottawa Village, which treats the water Bluffton Village sells; the nitrate, arsenic, radioactivity, solvent, farm-chemical and metal rows below are its results

Nitrate

highest of 95 samples was 3.5 mg/L as nitrogen (2019; limit 10); 3.5 in 2019, the last year sampled. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants

Arsenic

not detected in 8 samples (limit 10)

Solvents and fuels

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

Bacteria

0 of 567 routine tap samples (0%) tested positive for total coliform in 2012 to 2019, 0 of 60 in 2019. Coliform itself is a warning sign; E. coli means sewage or manure reached the water

Farm chemicals

atrazine in 12 of 24 samples, highest 3.1 µg/L (limit 3, 1 over); alachlor not detected in 23 samples

Metals

barium in 8 of 8 samples, highest 108 µg/L (limit 2,000); chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, thallium not detected in 8 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 Bluffton Village; nitrate, arsenic, radionuclides, solvents, herbicides and metals from the entry points of Ottawa Village, its supplier); non-detects counted as zero

PFAS

UCMR 5

4 samples in 2025 at the entry point to the distribution system: PFPeA 140, PFHxA 55, PFBA 15 ng/L

Ohio EPA 2020 at Ottawa Village

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

Ohio EPA latest at Ottawa Village

1 plant sampled by Ohio EPA, most recently 2020-09 (Ohio EPA statewide sampling status map)

Firefighting foam: 7 fire departments or other holders in Allen County registered 11,185 gallons of PFAS-based AFFF foam with Ohio EPA, 1,195 gallons in opened containers; the state is collecting it for disposal so it is never sprayed again.

Lithium: found in 2 of 4 UCMR 5 samples at Bluffton Village, highest 11 µg/L (detections averaged 10.5), last sampled 2025. 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 OH0200112; results in nanograms per litre (parts per trillion) · Ohio EPA PFAS

Lead at the tap

Latest period

0 ppb in the sampling period ending 2023-12

Record

5 sampling periods since 2016, none above 10 ppb

Service lines

1,485 inventoried: 1 lead, 89 galvanized needing replacement, 0 unknown, 1,395 not lead (reported all required service line types)

Children: this ZIP is not on the Ohio Department of Health's high-risk list for childhood lead testing; children on Medicaid or in pre-1978 housing with peeling paint should still be tested.

Housing age: 47% of the homes here were built before 1960 and 34% before 1940, when lead service lines, lead solder and lead paint were common; 71% 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 Bluffton Village (OH0200112), 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 at Ottawa Village, which supplies Bluffton Village: aeration, corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, lime softening, powdered activated carbon, sand or media filtration.

Measured fluoride: 0.96 mg/L on average leaving the plants of Ottawa Village, which supplies Bluffton Village, in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.91 to 1.2 mg/L across 8 samples in 2012 to 2019 (EPA compliance monitoring, Ottawa Village). Natural fluoride in Ohio well water runs from a trace to over 2 mg/L in parts of the northwest.

The health department counts 100% of Allen 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. Water bought from another utility arrives already treated, so the steps shown are the supplier's. 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 Bluffton Village (OH0200112) and its supplier Ottawa Village (OH6900711); 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

no microcystin detected at the intake

Treated water

1 detection, highest 0.493 µg/L (2018-09), above the 0.3 µg/L level for children under six

Monitoring

663 samples from 2016 to 2026, latest 2026-08-25

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 Ottawa Village, the utility that treats the water Bluffton Village sells · Ohio EPA HAB information for public water systems

Groundwater

Under the surface

glacial till (clay-rich, poor yields), part of the Lima Thin Upland Aquifer (thin upland setting); wells there yield < 5 gallons a minute, deposits < 25 ft thick

Bedrock

Undifferentiated Salina Dolomite, Includes Bass Islands Group, yielding > 100 gpm to a well

Well logs

790 drilled wells on file (123.1 per 1,000 residents), median 60 ft deep, 15 gallons a minute median test yield, water 21 ft down

Aquifers

97% of wells in bedrock, 3% in sand, gravel and other unconsolidated material; typical well drilled 1997, 316 since 2000; uses: Domestic 696, Agric/Irrig 21

Wellhead protection

1% of this ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA source water protection areas for 6 public water systems; the largest, Twin Lakes Park Campground PWS, is rated low susceptibility in a carbonate bedrock setting

Geology

27% 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; nearest verified sinkhole 23.9 mi away (Ohio EPA and ODNR Geological Survey)

Injection wells

20 Class V injection wells on Ohio EPA's books inside this ZIP (19 active): 6 large septic, 11 cleanup injection, 1 vehicle waste, 2 other; these put fluids underground above or into drinking water aquifers

Water table

PU-1 OH monitoring well (ODNR), 8.9 mi away: water 15 ft below ground on 2026-07-15; averaged 13.5 ft in 2015 to 2019 and 16.1 ft over the latest year, so the table is running about 2.6 ft lower; range 9.8 to 19.3 ft over 4,117 readings since 2015

Nitrate risk

EPA researchers put the chance that a public water system in the Middle Riley Creek subwatershed exceeds the nitrate limit at 13% if it draws on groundwater and 31% 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 Beaverdam Village Of (Allen County), 5.8 mi away: 435 ft deep in limestone or dolomite (USTG and Lockport aquifer); bedrock 37 ft down; wells there yield 5 to 25 gallons a minute; sampled on the standard cycle. 3 active wells within 15 mi

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

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

Aquifer exposure

Karst

the population center sits on Silurian-Devonian limestone and dolomite known to form karst, under less than 20 ft of drift; no mapped sinkhole inside the ZIP; nearest verified sinkhole 23.9 mi from the center

Wellhead protection

1% of the ZIP lies inside Ohio EPA source water protection areas for 6 public water systems; the largest, Twin Lakes Park Campground PWS, is rated low susceptibility in a carbonate bedrock setting

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

1.9 million gallons a day design flow; a major facility

Compliance

12 of the last 12 quarters with a violation; currently in violation (not significant); 9 effluent limit exceedances in 3 years

Combined sewer overflows: 2 outfalls inside this ZIP, 2 within 3 miles, permitted to Bluffton Wwtp into Riley Creek. In heavy rain these release untreated sewage mixed with storm water.

Other discharge permits: 2 facilities inside this ZIP other than sewage plants hold a Clean Water Act permit (factories, water plants, quarries, package plants, storm water); 1 facility-quarters with a violation in the last three years. 2 more industrial users discharge to the sewer under a pretreatment permit.

Sewage sludge: 19 farm fields covering 883 acres inside this ZIP are permitted for spreading treated biosolids, mostly from Bluffton Wwtp (744 acres), Toledo Bay View Park Wwtp (131 acres), Cridersville Wwtp (7 acres) (Ohio EPA). Biosolids carry nutrients and, increasingly under scrutiny, PFAS.

Sludge source: 1 permitted biosolids generator is inside this ZIP; nearest Bluffton WWTP, 1 mi away (a major plant); 4 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA).

State water loans: no Ohio EPA revolving-fund project inside this ZIP; the nearest is Prospect Street Water Main Replacement (Beaverdam, 2024, $322,616), 5.9 mi away.

Sewer planning: 46% of it is assigned to Allen County as the designated sewage management agency under Ohio's Clean Water Act section 208 plan (generic prescriptions); 5 agencies share the ZIP; 45% has no designated agency, which usually means septic systems. The 208 plan decides who may build and extend sewers.

Stormwater: this ZIP lies outside Ohio EPA's regulated MS4 areas, so its storm drains and ditches carry runoff without a municipal stormwater permit. 5 sites with an address in this ZIP hold their own industrial stormwater permits (Grob Systems Inc, Gerken Materials Inc - Gerken Hma Plt 3, Bluffton Precast Concrete Co and others) (EPA Facility Finder).

Plants inside this ZIP: Bluffton Wwtp (1.9 MGD, major).

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 89% of the land, recreation (bacteria) 100%, fish consumption 20%

Causes listed

bacteria (pathogens) (100%), sediment and silt (89%), habitat damage (89%)

Cleanup plans

100% of the land is under a TMDL pollution budget

Watersheds here: Middle Riley Creek (not supporting); Marsh Run-Little Riley Creek (not supporting).

Fish advisories (Ohio EPA): 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): Riley Creek Just Upst. Bluffton Wwtp on the Riley Creek, 0.9 mi away, draining 44 square miles: partial attainment of its warmwater use; fish IBI 34 of 60 (2005); bugs rated marginally good; habitat QHEI 61 of 100. 12 assessed sites inside the ZIP, 8 within 3 miles, 54 within 10. Scores above about 40 (IBI), 36 (ICI) and 60 (QHEI) mean a healthy warmwater stream.

Stream designations (Ohio EPA water quality standards): 60.7 miles of designated streams cross this ZIP: 42.5 mi warmwater habitat, 17.8 mi modified warmwater habitat, 0.4 mi limited resource water. Exceptional and coldwater streams are the state's healthiest; modified and limited-resource waters are channelized or ditched.

Proposed for 2026: the nearest reach Ohio EPA proposes to add to the antidegradation tiers is the Auglaize River (Headwaters to Prairie creek (RM 18.77)), 13.9 mi away, as Superior High Quality Water.

PFAS in the river (Ohio EPA large river survey): at Blanchard R. At Gilboa @ Co. Rd. 5-F, 9.1 mi away, the water carried 98.68 ng/L of total PFAS (PFOA 2.8, PFOS 2.2 ng/L); fish fillets held 34.79 ng/g in bluegill and 17.56 ng/g in catfish (PFOS 14 in bluegill). Drinking water limits are 4 ng/L for PFOA and PFOS; river water is not drinking water, but treatment plants that draw from it start from these numbers.

Farm chemicals (USGS estimate, 2018): farms in Allen County used about 189 metric tons of pesticide active ingredient, 463 kg per square mile, 25th of Ohio's 88 counties. Largest: glyphosate 71 t, atrazine 36 t, metolachlor 20 t, acetochlor 14 t, 2,4-D 12 t. Atrazine, the corn herbicide, is the pesticide that most often shows up in Ohio tap water after spring rains; this county used 36 t of it.

Farms (2022 Census of Agriculture): 897 farms work 178,921 acres of Allen County, with 63.7% of its land in cropland, 199 acres to a farm. 8,576 cattle, 235,800 hogs; 64,776 acres of corn and 76,200 of soybeans. Sales $241 million, 42% 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

• Blanchard99% of residentsDrains to Lake Erie

H2Ohio: nearest project Putnam Oxbow Restoration, inland flow-through and floodplain wetland, funded 2022, completed, 10.9 mi away: The Nature Conservancy recently completed a floodplain project located on a Village of Ottawa parcel that restored 35.5 acres of floodplain while creating 6 acr...; 0 within 5 miles, 7 within 15. H2Ohio pays for wetlands, farm practices and lead line work to cut the nutrients behind Lake Erie's algae.

Source water: 100% of this ZIP drains to the river intakes of Napoleon City, Campbell Soup Supply Co, Bowling Green City and sits inside their Ohio EPA source water protection area.

Watershed grants: nearest "Municipal Parking Lot No. 2 Improvements" by City of Lima (stormwater management, Section 319), 15 mi away; 0 within 10 miles (Ohio EPA project lists: Section 319 and GLRI through fiscal 2023, SWIF through 2017).

Road salt: nearest went to Village of Ottawa (equipment/facility, 2024-2025), 12.2 mi away; 1 in Allen County. H2Ohio pays for brine makers, calibrated spreaders and covered salt barns so less chloride reaches streams and wells.

The population center sits in the Middle Riley Creek subwatershed; its water runs on through Lower Riley Creek, then Village of Gilboa-Blanchard River, then Pike Run-Blanchard River.

In 2015 Allen County drew about 28 million gallons a day of fresh water (USGS): 18.2 million for public supply (2% from wells, 84,500 people served at 64 gallons a person a day at home), 4.3 million for industry, 0.3 million for irrigation, 3 million for mining; 19,900 residents drew their own well water.

EnviroAtlas, Middle Riley Creek: 50 to 100 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program; 6,827 acres of grain crops; 25 miles of streams (1.6 per square mile); water use of 204 thousand gallons a day for homes; 36.3 inches of rain and snow a year; 12.6 kg of nitrogen per hectare falling from the air each year; farm nitrogen of 0.7 kg per hectare a year as manure and 43.5 kg as synthetic fertilizer; 25% of the farmland sits on drained hydric soils; potentially restorable wetlands on farmland cover 40% of the subwatershed; 5.1% of the land is paved or roofed; 16% of the stream banks keep natural cover (EPA EnviroAtlas national metrics, 2010s vintages).

Stream permits: none of this ZIP drains to streams Ohio EPA rates high quality, so stream crossings and fills here can use the Army Corps' blanket nationwide permits under Ohio EPA's standing 401 certification (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

$76,848 median

Income spread

11% of households earn under $25,000 a year, 37% $100,000 or more and 7.5% $200,000 or more

Rent

$795 a month, median gross

Owner-occupied

76% of 2,394 occupied homes; 51% of owners carry a mortgage

Typical home built

1964

Value spread

5% of owner-occupied homes are worth under $100,000 and 3.6% $500,000 or more; income per person $38,390 a year

Moved in

the typical owner moved in in 2008, the typical renter in 2017

Median age

43.1 years

Commute

19 minutes each way on average, 7% of commuters travel 45 minutes or more, 10% work from home

Housing stock

78% single-family detached, 7% in buildings of 5 or more units, 1% mobile homes

Vacancy

5.9% of 2,543 housing units are vacant: 3.5% for sale, 1.3% held for seasonal or occasional use, 1.1% other, such as homes held off the market, in probate or abandoned

Owner costs

5% of owners with a mortgage and 4% of owners without one spend 30% or more of income on housing

Evictions

1.5 eviction filings a year per 100 renter households in 2016 to 2018, 0.73 ending in a judgement (about 6 filings a year; Eviction Lab)

Fair market rent

$1,040 a month for a two-bedroom (one-bedroom $790, three-bedroom $1,270): HUD's fiscal 2026 small-area fair market rent, the benchmark for housing vouchers in the Lima MSA area

Tax returns

2,930 returns for 2022 averaging $82,546 of adjusted gross income; 24% reported under $25,000 and 6% reported $200,000 or more; 7% claimed the earned income credit and 36% were filed by people 60 or older (IRS)

Subsidized housing

1 HUD-assisted multifamily property with 40 assisted units (Section 8 and similar contracts). Housing vouchers used in private rentals are not counted

Banks

3 full-service bank branches from 3 banks inside this ZIP (FDIC); no credit union branch (NCUA)

Strain

46% of renters pay 30% or more of income in rent; 2.2% of households have no vehicle; the median renter spends 27.8% of income on rent; the median owner with a mortgage spends 15.8% 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

1,913 one-family houses, 20 two-family houses, 5 three-family houses, 35 condominiums, 19 manufactured homes, 49 farmhouses; also 16 apartment buildings and 78 other residential parcels

Size

median lot 0.45 acres (condominiums left out)

Value

median appraised value $215,500 (tax year 2025): the county auditor's market value for property tax, not a sale price

Sales

65 sales in the 12 months to Sep 14, 2026 (median $264,995); 251 sales in 5 years (median $230,000). Counted: sales the auditor marked valid or has not yet reviewed (sales marked not valid, and unreviewed ones under $10,000, are left out), single-parcel sales of homes, one per house (its newest)

Owners

76% owner-occupied (homes receiving the owner-occupancy tax credit); 4% company-owned

Neighborhoods

0 neighborhoods and 106 subdivisions (details load below)

Show neighborhoods and houses

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

Source: county auditors' appraisal records: Allen County Auditor (as of Sep 14, 2026); OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels, Ohio Department of Administrative Services (Hancock County, upload of May 8, 2023; Putnam County, upload of Sep 25, 2023); residential parcels placed in ZIPs by the atlas; owner names are not carried · Allen County Auditor · Ashland County Auditor · Auglaize County Auditor · Butler County Auditor · Champaign County Auditor · Clark County Auditor · Clinton County Auditor · Coshocton County Auditor · Crawford County Auditor · Fairfield County Auditor · Fayette County Auditor · Franklin County Auditor · Greene County Auditor · Guernsey County Auditor · Hardin County Auditor · Highland County Auditor · Hocking County Auditor · Holmes County Auditor · Jackson County Auditor · Knox County Auditor · Licking County Auditor · Logan County Auditor · Lorain County Auditor · Madison County Auditor · Marion County Auditor · Miami County Auditor · Montgomery County Auditor · Morrow County Auditor · Muskingum County Auditor · Perry County Auditor · Pickaway County Auditor · Richland County Auditor · Ross County Auditor · Stark County Auditor · Tuscarawas County Auditor · Union County Auditor · Wyandot County Auditor · OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels · Athens County subdivisions, town plats and additions (Athens County Auditor GIS) · Cincinnati Community Council Boundaries · Cincinnati Statistical Neighborhood Approximations (SNA), 2020 · Clark County recorded subdivision plats · Clermont County recorded subdivision plats · Cleveland Heights neighborhoods · Cleveland Statistical Planning Areas (SPAs) / neighborhoods · Columbus Communities · Columbus Community Planning Areas · Coshocton County subdivisions (recorded plats and town additions) · Dayton neighborhoods · Dublin Civic Associations · Franklin County recorded subdivision and condominium plats · Hamilton (Ohio) 17Strong neighborhoods · Lima neighborhood associations · Logan County subdivision and condominium plats · Madison County subdivisions (recorded plats) · Morgan County subdivision, addition and town plats · Muskingum County subdivision plats · Perry County subdivisions and town additions (recorded plat names on the county engineer's parcels) · Richland County subdivisions and condominiums (recorded plats, county GIS) · Sandusky neighborhoods · Stark County recorded allotment (subdivision) and condominium plats · Toledo neighborhood associations · Union County subdivision plats

Building permits

Mix

60 single-family houses, 0 units in buildings of five or more, 10 in duplexes and small buildings

Value

$19.5 million of construction at the value declared on the permits

By year

2016: 5, 2017: 6, 2018: 8, 2019: 4, 2020: 7, 2021: 5, 2022: 4, 2023: 9, 2024: 8, 2025: 14, 2026 through July: 5

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

+44% from 2020 to 2025

Last year

+4% in 2025

Since 2000

prices stand at 2.1 times their 2000 level

Series

tracked since 1986

Zillow's typical home value here is $280K (2026-07), up 6% over the year, up 27% over five years and up 80% over ten.

On the market (Realtor.com, August 2026): median asking price $402,450, $192 per square foot for a typical 2,378 sq ft listing; 5 active listings, 8 new this month; listings spend a median 38 days on the market; 0% of listings have cut their price. Realtor.com flags this ZIP's figures this month as low quality (5 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

Bluffton Exempted Village 83% of residents

23.3 effective mills (36.8 gross); $1,628 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 15.4, bonds 0.5, emergency 2.8, inside millage 4.6.

Cory-Rawson Local 15% of residents

22.6 effective mills (36.4 gross); $1,581 a year on a $200,000 home. Operating 14.6, bonds 1.9, improvements 0.7, inside millage 5.4.

Municipal income tax

Bluffton 1.65% (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

Bluffton Exempted Village 0.5% (83% of residents), Cory-Rawson Local 1.75% (15% of residents). Voted by the district and collected with the state income tax.

Sales tax

6.85% combined rate in Allen County: Ohio's 5.75% plus county and transit levies; this ZIP straddles counties or transit districts, so the rate depends on the address.

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

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

Who delivers the electricity

• AEP Ohio investor-owned84% of residentsAmerican Electric Power (AEP)
• Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, Inc. co-op11% of residentsBuckeye Power, Inc.
• Midwest Electric, Inc. co-op4% of residentsBuckeye Power, Inc.

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

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

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

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, Inc. outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 80 minutes (35 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 0.9 interruptions a year.

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, Inc. residential price, 2024: 17.05 cents per kWh, about $185 a month for the average home across 11,307 residential customers (EIA-861).

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, Inc. solar and meters, 2024: no net-metered solar reported under its own name (Buckeye Power, the co-ops' generation cooperative, files one Ohio net-metering row: 3,058 systems, 32.6 MW in 2024); 100% of its 13,591 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters (EIA-861).

Midwest Electric, Inc. outages, 2024: the average customer lost power for 293 minutes (89 minutes leaving out major storm days), about 1.8 interruptions a year.

Midwest Electric, Inc. residential price, 2024: 15.27 cents per kWh, about $201 a month for the average home across 10,836 residential customers (EIA-861).

Midwest Electric, Inc. solar and meters, 2024: no net-metered solar reported under its own name (Buckeye Power, the co-ops' generation cooperative, files one Ohio net-metering row: 3,058 systems, 32.6 MW in 2024); 100% of its 11,219 meters are two-way smart (AMI) meters (EIA-861).

Energy burden: households here spend an average 3.3% of income on electricity, gas and other fuels (about $2,861 a year against $86,916 of income); the 31% of households below 80% of the area median income spend 8.6%, and 28% 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

51% of the 2,394 homes here heat with utility gas.

Utility gas 51%Electricity 21%Propane or LP 21%Oil, wood, other 6%

• Enbridge Gas Ohio regulated utility81% of residents, main companyEnbridge Inc.
• Columbia Gas of Ohio regulated utility18% of residents, main companyNiSource Inc.

Territories overlap here: KNG Energy, Inc. also maps service in this ZIP.

Pipes under the street: Enbridge Gas Ohio reported 19,922 miles of distribution main to PHMSA for 2025, 43% plastic and 17.8% cast iron or bare steel (the leak-prone materials); 4,023 hazardous leaks repaired in 2025.

PUCO lists 2 companies operating in Allen 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: Ohio Northern University Solar Site, 9.2 mi (solar, 3 MW).

1 plant within 10 miles totalling 3 MW: 1 solar (3 MW).

Wind: Hog Creek, 30 turbines, 66 MW (2017), 11.5 mi away; 1 wind farm within 15 miles.

Solar: Ohio Northern University Solar Site, 3 MW AC (2018), 14 acres, 9.2 mi away; 2 utility-scale solar farms within 15 miles.

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

8 miles of transmission pipe cross this ZIP: West Ohio Gas Co 8 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

• Brightspeed95% of residentsBrightspeed (formerly CenturyLink)
• Consolidated Communications CCI2% of residentsIndependent local companies
• Frontier North2% of residentsFrontier

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

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 0%Unserved, under 25/3 1%

Fiber reaches 44% of locations, cable 70%; a year earlier 99% were served.

Of 2,394 households, 73% subscribe to cable, fiber or DSL, 10% rely on a cellular plan only, and 11% have no internet at home.

Measured by Ookla speed tests, April to June 2025: typical fixed download 245.7 Mbps, upload 83.1 Mbps, 54 ms latency, across 211 tests from up to 85 devices in 47 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 99%
• T-Mobile4G 97% · 5G 89%
• Verizon4G 100% · 5G 87%

Registered towers: 13 antenna structures registered with the FCC inside this ZIP and 6 within 3 miles of its center; the tallest inside is a 300-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 197.6 Mbps, upload 16.6 Mbps, latency 40 ms over 105 tests from up to 28 devices in 25 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

No public station inside this ZIP; the nearest of any kind is Flying J 695, 5.3 mi. 0 stations within 5 miles of the ZIP's population center, 0 with DC fast charging.

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

17 stops inside this ZIP: Allen County RTA (17).

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

21 intersections per square mile, long blocks and country roads

Transit

the EPA's 2020 transit file lacks this area's bus system, so it puts nobody here within three-quarters of a mile of a stop; the Transit card finds 46% of residents within half a mile of one

Mix of uses

employment mix 0.64 and mix of homes and job types 0.66 on the EPA's 0 to 1 scales, where 1 is the most varied

Car-free households

2.2% 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. Here the transit third of the score sits at its minimum because the EPA held no feed for this area's buses; counting them would likely add several points to the score and could move this ZIP up a band.

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

3 with gates; railroads: Norfolk Southern (10). Busiest crossing: 4 trains a day reported; fastest line 10 mph.

Allen County has logged 22 rail accidents since 2010, 17 of them derailments (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 1981, 4 built before 1950; oldest 1925, Bluf - Main St over Riley Creek - Dixie Hwy

Busiest

IR 75 SB over Little Riley Creek, 15,861 vehicles a day (2015 count)

Owners

county 46, state 32

Rated poor

Bluf - Main St over Marsh Run - Dixie Hwy (1927, 3,640 a day); Bluf - Main St over Riley Creek - Dixie Hwy (1925, 3,481 a day) and 3 more

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

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

Traffic

Trucks

11,083 a day on I-75, 32% of its traffic

Driving

about 488K vehicle-miles a day on the 300 counted segments inside the ZIP; the typical segment carries 1,143 vehicles

Busiest local road

city street 39, 11,754 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: 6 people died in 6 crashes inside this ZIP in 2020 to 2024 (3 pedestrians); 0 involved a drinking driver and 3 happened in the dark; most on I-75 (3). That is 18.7 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

Bluffton (5G7), Bluffton, 1.3 mi, public use

Amtrak

Bryan station, 53.4 mi

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

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

Radon in this ZIP

38% of tests at or above EPA's 4 pCi/L action level · median 2.9 · highest 23.0

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

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

Flood zones

4.9% of the ZIP's land is in that floodplain, and another 0.1% is in the 0.2% (500-year) zone. Zones mapped here: AE, A.

Design storms (NOAA Atlas 14): a 100-year storm here drops 5.3 inches in 24 hours (2.7 in a single hour, 4.1 in six); a 2-year storm 2.5, 10-year 3.5, 25-year 4.2, 500-year 6.7 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: Riley Creek below Pandora OH, 7.4 mi away, draining 70 square miles. Record flow 6,520 cubic feet a second at a stage of 11.64 ft on 2011-02-28; the highest since 2016 was 6,150 on 2019-04-26 (USGS, 12 annual peaks, 2010 to 2024).

20 federal flood insurance policies are in force in this ZIP, covering $5.7 million of buildings; 70% of them are in a mapped high-risk zone; the typical policy costs $1,070 a year (about 1% of households).

72 federal flood insurance claims from this ZIP since 1978, 23 since 2010, paying about $1.3 million in all; the worst year was 2007 with 19 claims; 23% of claims came from outside the mapped high-risk zone.

Community status: Bluffton takes part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 05/04/15. Allen County's unincorporated areas take part in the National Flood Insurance Program; flood map effective 06/20/24.

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

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

Natural hazard risk

• Strong wind80
• Hail80

FEMA's expected annual loss here from all hazards: $1.8 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 61, tornado 64, winter weather 76.

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

51.3°F average; typical January low 19°, July high 84°

Hot and cold days

14 days a year reach 90°F; 124 nights fall below freezing, 6 below 0°F; 41 days never climb above freezing

Rain and snow

38.7 inches of precipitation on 77 days with a tenth of an inch or more; 33 inches of snow on 11 days with an inch or more, snow on the ground 40 days

Degree days

5,843 heating, 896 cooling (base 65°F): the higher the heating number, the bigger the winter gas bill

Drought (U.S. Drought Monitor): since 2020 Allen County has spent 68 weeks in moderate drought or worse, 30 of them severe or worse (most recently 11 weeks in 2026), and 147 weeks at least abnormally dry. The worst since 2000 was severe drought in 2026/03; 8% of all weeks since 2000 were in drought. As of 2026-09-01: no drought.

Long run (NOAA, Allen County): the average year ran 51.6 °F over 1996 to 2025 against 49.5 °F over 1901 to 1930, 2.1 °F warmer (1.9 °F warmer than 1951 to 1980); the warmest year on record was 2024 at 55.0 °F, and 2025 came in at 52.1 °F. Precipitation averaged 39.2 inches a year lately against 35.7 a century ago, 10% more; the wettest year was 2011 with 52.6 inches, and 2025 brought 31.1. More rain in bigger bursts is what strains storm sewers and septic fields.

Stations: Pandora (5.4 mi, temperature and precipitation and snowfall; 27 years of snowfall record). Normals are thirty-year averages, so a single winter can run far above or below them.

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

Air quality

Worst days

98th-percentile day 21.8 µg/m³ (24-hour standard 35)

Ozone

66 ppb, 4th-highest daily 8-hour reading at Lima, 11.6 mi away (standard 70)

Allen County AQI, 2025

235 good days, 115 moderate, 1 unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse of the 351 days indexed; peak 129, median 42

Allen County AQI, 2026 so far

61 good days, 9 moderate and 0 unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse in the 70 days indexed through April 30; peak 64 (Ozone)

Air toxics

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

Permitted sources

9 permitted air sources inside this ZIP under the Clean Air Act (1 major, Title V), 3 synthetic minor; none had a violation in the last 3 years. Notable: Sumiriko Ohio, Incorporated (major) (5 permanently closed sources also on file) (EPA ECHO)

Air standards

Allen 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

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

68 EPA-registered facilities of all kinds in this ZIP: 0 brownfield sites in the cleanup program, 29 hazardous-waste handlers, 10 with air permits, 12 with water discharge permits.

Voluntary cleanups: 1 property inside this ZIP holds an Ohio EPA covenant not to sue after a Voluntary Action Program cleanup, 1 is under institutional controls; 1 such property within 3 miles of the population center, nearest Former BP Site # 69365, 0.2 mi. These are former industrial and commercial sites certified clean enough to reuse.

Solid waste: no licensed solid waste facility inside this ZIP; nearest Village of Columbus Grove (compost site), 8.7 mi from the center; 0 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): 16 active RCRA handlers inside this ZIP; none had a violation in the last 3 years. Nearest treatment, storage or disposal facility: Ineos Nitriles USA LLC in Lima, 17.3 mi. Handlers include every business that generates hazardous waste, from body shops to chemical plants.

Underground tanks: 6 sites with 19 registered underground storage tanks in use (53 more tanks closed over the years); 28 leaking-tank releases on record, 1 open at the time, 2 inside a drinking-water source protection area (EPA UST Finder, Ohio records as of 2018-2019).

Drop-off sites: the nearest scrap tire drop-off is Best One Tire & Service, Lima, 13.5 mi away (2 within 15 mi); the nearest household battery drop-off is Bike Crazy LLC, Bluffton, 0.5 mi away (1 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

54,447 lb to the air, 0 lb to surface water, 0 lb to land or underground injection; another 11,830 lb was shipped off site for disposal or release

Chemicals

Ethylene glycol 50,164 lb, Toluene 1,634 lb, Xylene (mixed isomers) 1,352 lb

Carcinogens

1,297 lb of the on-site releases were chemicals EPA lists as carcinogens

Facilities

Sumiriko Ohio Inc (Plastics and Rubber): 54,447 lb, mostly Ethylene glycol; Tower Automotive Operations Usa 1 Llc (Transportation Equipment): 0 lb

Trend

36,767 lb on site in 2020, so up 48% 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: Ottawa Upground Reservoir, 11 mi, condition fair (water supply, 22 ft high, 400 acre-feet, built 1972, on Blanchard River - Offstream, local government owned).

Inside this ZIP: 1 dam, 0 high-hazard, 0 rated poor: Swing Bridge Lake Dam (undetermined hazard, condition not rated).

"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 1965-04-11, 32.5 mi track (13 killed, 104 injured).

13 federal declarations for Allen County since Ohio's first in 1956 (9 major disasters): severe storm 5, flood 2, biological 2. Latest: Covid-19 Pandemic (2020).

5 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more within 25 miles since 1970, the largest M2.8 2 km E of Lima, Ohio in 2006.

Warnings since 2015 (National Weather Service, Allen County): 6 tornado warnings (2017: 1, 2019: 3, 2023: 1, 2026: 1), 76 severe thunderstorm warnings, 3 flash flood warnings, 58 flood warnings and 38 flood advisories, 8 winter storm or blizzard warnings, 43 heat warnings or advisories, 3 extreme cold or wind chill warnings; 690 products in all.

Mitigation grants (FEMA): 2 hazard mitigation projects in Allen County since 2003, worth $220,637 ($191,475 federal), covering 1 property; mostly mitigation planning, property buyouts. Largest: property buyouts for Allen (County), $174,417 (fiscal 2020).

Mitigated properties: FEMA money has treated 1 property in this ZIP in 2011: 1 safe room built. Buyouts turn repeatedly flooded lots into permanent open space.

Disaster aid to households: 190 households in this ZIP registered with FEMA after 3 declared disasters; 130 were approved for $546,670 of housing and other-needs help. Registrations by event: severe storms, flooding and tornadoes (2007): 180; COVID-19 pandemic (2020): 9; tornadoes (2024): 1.

57 severe weather reports for Allen County since 2016 in NOAA's Storm Events log: 35 damaging thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 4 tornadoes, 1 river and street flooding. Largest hail 1.75 in (Jul 16, 2017); strongest measured gust 64 mph (May 21, 2022); about $150,000 in reported damage, the costliest being damaging thunderstorm wind on Jun 18, 2025 ($50K). Zone-wide advisories add 16 winter weather, 9 high wind, 6 winter storms.

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

diesel and fuel oil (6), oils and hydraulic fluid (4), unidentified material or sheen (2)

Largest

about 169 gallons of oil cutting /cutting oil / coolant / lubricant in 2025, Orange Twp

Reached water

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

By year

2021: 3, 2022: 2, 2023: 0, 2024: 3, 2025: 2, 2026: 4

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

5 producing, 452 plugged or abandoned, the rest drilled but idle, gas storage, orphan, expired permits or unknown

Orphans

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

Operators

Rockwell Oil Company (5 producing)

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

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

Abandoned mines

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

Quarries, pits and working mines: 1 working operation inside this ZIP in 2015 (Bluffton Stone Co., limestone); nearest Bluffton Stone Co. (limestone, Bluffton Stone Co., 320,312 tons sold), 0.1 mi away in Allen County; 1 within 3 miles, 1 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

Pits, quarry; Pits, quarry makes up 95% of the unit

Water

drainage unknown; flooding not rated, ponding not rated

Septic

Not rated for a leach field under Ohio's rule

Basements

Not rated for dwellings with basements

Farmland

Not prime farmland

Elevation

827 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

Bluffton Golf Club

private park, 132 acres inside the ZIP

Little Riley Creek Park

local park, 54 acres inside the ZIP

Nearest state park: Van Buren State Park, 21.3 mi.

Protected land: 0.8% of this ZIP (312 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): 132 acres private, 79 acres local, 54 acres district, 47 acres state. Largest: Bluffton Golf Club (private owner), 132 acres; Little Riley Creek Park (regional agency), 54 acres; Bluffton Village Park (city), 53 acres. 1% of the ZIP is protected land open to the public.

Trails: 2 miles of named trails cross this ZIP: Triplett Bike Path (2 mi). 0.1 miles of state bike route K 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: Chippewa at Indian Lake State Park, 25.9 mi (0 within 5 miles); fishing access: Fishing Access at Van Buren State Park, 21.8 mi (0 within 5 miles); swim area: Boat Swim Area at Indian Lake State Park, 25.9 mi (0 within 5 miles); campground: Campground/Campsite at Van Buren State Park, 22.4 mi (0 within 5 miles).

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

Wetlands

222 acres pond, 193 acres forested/shrub wetland, 32 acres emergent wetland. Largest single wetland: 13 acres of freshwater pond.

Vernal pools: 42 potential high-quality vernal pools covering 25.5 acres lie inside this ZIP (Ohio EPA screening): seasonal woodland pools that dry by summer, hold no fish, and are where salamanders and fairy shrimp breed.

High-quality wetlands: nearest is Kendrick Woods NP (Ohio DNR), 31 acres, 24.2 mi away; 0 within 10 miles.

Mitigation sites: nearest ODOT HAN/WYA 30 - Woodruff Stream Relocation, 13.1 mi away (a permittee-responsible site); 0 within 10 miles. These are wetlands and streams built or restored to replace ones filled under Clean Water Act permits.

Assessed wetland: nearest NWCA-OH-3045, a wetland, 17.8 mi away: ORAM 34 of 100 (category 2), plant community index 64 of 100 (surveyed 2012); 0 within 10 miles. Category 3 wetlands are the state's best and hardest to fill; category 1 are degraded.

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

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

Land cover

Developed

11%: 2% medium (apartments, small-lot houses), 3% low (houses on larger lots), 5.7% open space (lawns, parks, golf courses, road verges)

Farmland

80%: 79% row crops, 0.9% pasture and hay

Crops 2025

of 30,189 cropped acres, 55% soybeans, 39% corn, 4% wheat and small grains (plus 4% wheat followed by soybeans, counted under soybeans), 2% hay and alfalfa; 2,249 acres of pasture and grass (USDA Cropland Data Layer)

Forest

7.8%, plus 0.7% grass and shrub

Water and wetland

0.5% open water, 0.4% wetland

Paved and roofed

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

Tree canopy

6% of the ZIP sits under tree canopy

Area

64 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

38% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 18.2% a graduate degree; 33.6% stopped at high school or earlier

Ages

21.9% under 18, 25.3% 65 or older

Race and origin

89.6% white, 2% Black, 1.5% Hispanic or Latino, 1.3% Asian, 5.6% other or two or more races

Born abroad

4.4% of residents (259 people); largest countries of birth: Brazil (88), Germany (53), Philippines (47)

Veterans

10.5% of adults

Households

2.3 people per household on average; 36% of households are one person living alone, 53% married couples

Who lives here

27% of households include children, 42% someone 65 or over and 22.1% are a senior living alone; of people 15 and over, 56% are married, 28% never married, 7% divorced and 9% widowed

Poverty

2.6% of residents live below the poverty line, 1.0% of children and 2.4% of people 65 and over; the Gini index of income inequality is 0.40 (0 would mean every household earns the same, 1 that one household earns everything). County-wide, the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate is 14.8% (18.2% of children) with a median household income of $67,677 (SAIPE)

Ancestry

most often reported: German 39%, English 12%, Irish 12%

Movers

9.1% of residents lived somewhere else a year earlier, 2.3% in another state

Language

0.6% of households speak limited English; 2.8% speak Spanish at home

Group quarters

665 of the 6,420 people counted here in 2020 (10%) lived in group quarters: 494 in college housing, 171 in nursing facilities (2020 Census)

Moving

3,471 people moved into Allen County between the returns they filed in 2022 and 2023 and 3,676 moved out (net −205, 78,407 stayed put); most arrivals came from Auglaize, OH (459), Van Wert, OH (219), Putnam, OH (217); most leavers went to Auglaize, OH (418), Franklin, OH (254), Van Wert, OH (229) (IRS)

Metro or rural

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

Nonprofits

57 tax-exempt organizations registered to addresses in this ZIP, 5 of them reporting $1 million or more in income; 86% are 501(c)(3) charities and 14% churches or religious groups; largest: Bluffton University ($32 million), Mennonite Memorial Home ($13 million), Bluffton-Richland Library Foundation ($2 million) (IRS)

County growth

Allen County went from 102,204 people in April 2020 to 100,881 in July 2025 (-1.3%): 6,026 births, 6,429 deaths and a net −843 from migration since 2020; in 2025 alone a net 209 left for elsewhere in the U.S. and 92 arrived from abroad (Census estimates)

Since 1900

First counted in 1830 with 578 people and 12,109 by 1850, Allen County counted 47,976 people in 1900, 88,183 in 1950, 111,144 in 1970, 108,464 in 2000 and 102,204 in 2020; it peaked at 112,241 in 1980 (2.1 times its 1900 size, decennial censuses)

Commuting area: USDA classes this ZIP as rural, with no town of 2,500 within commuting reach (rural-urban commuting area code 10 of 10, 2020 edition).

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

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

Jobs and commuting

Largest employers by sector: Manufacturing 1,495, Health care and social assistance 399, Education 328. 59% of local jobs pay over $3,333 a month, and 53% of residents' jobs do.

Businesses: 161 establishments with 3,602 employees and $177 million a year in payroll in 2023; most common: health care and social assistance (22), other services (22), retail (18), restaurants and hotels (18) (ZIP Business Patterns).

Workplace safety (OSHA): 6 inspections of workplaces in this ZIP since 2020 (1 after complaints, 2 planned, 3 on referrals); most inspected: Sumitomo Riko Company Ltd (2), Sumiriko Ohio Inc. (1), Gerken Materials, Inc. (1). No worker death investigated since 2015; 2 hospitalisations.

County labor market: Allen County's unemployment rate was 3.6% in July 2026 (5.0% a year earlier), with 47,563 people in the labor force and 1,718 looking for work. Employers in the county paid an average of $1,220 a week in the first quarter of 2026 (up 4.4% on the year) to 49,665 workers at 2,558 establishments, employment up 0.2%; the largest private sectors are health care and social assistance (9,874 jobs, $1,265 a week), manufacturing (8,803 jobs, $2,075 a week), retail (5,079 jobs, $681 a week). (BLS)

Working-age residents: 61.7% of people 16 and over here are in the labor force, and 5.8% of the civilian labor force was unemployed, averaged over 2020 to 2024 (Census ACS). Residents' most common occupations: education, legal, community service and arts 15%, management and business 14%, health practitioners 10%; 8% are self-employed and 12% work for a government.

Federal money: in fiscal 2025 the federal government obligated $154 million in contracts performed in Allen County ($1,510 a resident) and $116 million in grants ($1,133 a resident), plus $434,000 in loan guarantees and loans and $645 million in direct payments to people and organizations (USAspending; Social Security, Medicare and most benefits are not counted).

County economy: Allen County produced $8.9 billion of real GDP in 2024 (2017 dollars, up 13.7% since 2019); personal income came to $56,066 a person in 2024, 39th of Ohio's 88 counties and up 30% since 2019 before inflation (BEA).

County type (USDA ERS, 2015 codes): Allen County is a metro county with a nonspecialized economy, flagged for population loss.

How they get there: 76.9% drive alone, 6% carpool, 0% transit, 6.5% walk, 0% bike, 10% work from home (ACS).

Where residents work: 23% inside this ZIP; 11% in Findlay (45840), 9% in Lima (45801), 4% in Ottawa (45875) (shares of the 2,505 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

clearly above the Ohio median of 42 for low-income children

Incarceration

0.66% of those children were in jail or prison on census day 2010

Coverage

100% 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

15th percentile: poverty, unemployment, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, no health insurance

Household characteristics

62nd: people 65 and over or 17 and under, disability, single-parent households, limited English

Racial and ethnic minority status

31st

Housing and transportation

54th: 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 34.5%, no leisure-time physical activity 23.0%

Chronic conditions

diabetes 11.3%, high blood pressure 34.3%, COPD 6.8%, cancer (any but non-melanoma skin cancer) 9.9%

Habits

current smoking 12.3%, binge drinking 17.5%, short sleep 35.7%

Mind

depression 26.1%, frequent mental distress 16.4%, feeling lonely 35.2%

Access

uninsured under 65 5.7%, yearly checkup 81.2%, dental visit 68.3%

Hardship

any disability 26.6%, food insecurity 8.5%

Heart and lungs

current asthma 10.4%, coronary heart disease 6.7%, stroke 3.1%, arthritis 29.7%

Keeping up

80.1% of adults with high blood pressure take medicine for it, 87.0% had a cholesterol check in 5 years

Social needs

housing insecurity 7.5%, no reliable transportation 5.4%, utility shut-off threat 5.2%, lacking emotional support 19.4%

Provider shortage

82% live in a designated primary care shortage area (score 15 of 25), 1% area-wide and the rest for low-income residents only; 81% live in an area HRSA designates a dental shortage area for its low-income residents (score 13 of 26); 82% live in a designated mental health shortage area (score 19 of 25), 1% area-wide and the rest for low-income residents only (HRSA; higher scores mean greater need)

Coverage (Census)

4.7% of residents have no health insurance (6.1% of children); 4% are on Medicaid and 60% have coverage through an employer

Disability (Census)

11.2% of residents report a disability, 24% of those 65 and over

County (County Health Rankings 2025): Allen County sits in health group 5 of 10 among U.S. counties for population health (1 is healthiest) and group 4 for community conditions. Premature death 10,482 (Ohio 9,740) years of life lost before 75 per 100,000; one primary care doctor for every 1,540 people (Ohio 1,328), one mental health provider for every 321 people (Ohio 286), one dentist for every 1,605 people (Ohio 1,535); preventable hospital stays 3,632 (Ohio 3,033) per 100,000 Medicare enrollees; injury deaths 95.1 (Ohio 100.7) and suicides 16.8 (Ohio 14.7) per 100,000; infant deaths 6.4 (Ohio 7.0) per 1,000 births; teen births 25.8 (Ohio 17.4) per 1,000 girls 15 to 19; children in poverty 18.6 (Ohio 17.5) percent; fine-particle air pollution 5.4 (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: 17 deaths in the 12 months ending December 2025 (32 a year earlier, 54 at the highest since 2020, in the 12 months ending February 2023), about 16.9 per 100,000 residents against 20.8 statewide (CDC provisional counts).

Cancer (NCI State Cancer Profiles): Allen County records 459.1 new cancers a year per 100,000 people, age-adjusted, for 2018 to 2022 (Ohio 472.9, U.S. 448.6), about 615 cases a year, with the rate stable; cancer deaths 159 per 100,000 (Ohio 160.3, U.S. 145.4), falling. By site, per 100,000 (Ohio in parentheses): lung 65.2 (63.6), colorectal 36.9 (38.4), female breast 121.3 (133), prostate 122.9 (120.8), bladder 22.9 (21.8), leukemia 10.4 (13).

Medicare: 23,553 people in Allen County were on Medicare in 2025 (23% of residents): 20,568 aged 65 or over and 2,985 younger people with disabilities. 51% chose a Medicare Advantage plan, 17% also had Medicaid and 85% had Part D drug coverage; enrollment is up 7% 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

25 beds · no trauma designation listed · 1 general or critical-access hospital within 10 miles, 5 within 25.

Medicare rating: not rated · emergency room: yes · typical ER visit 128 minutes door to discharge (Ohio median 155)

Community health center: nearest Mustang Health Center, Harrod, 10.8 mi away; 0 within 3 miles, 0 within 10. These federally funded clinics see anyone and charge on a sliding scale.

Veterans: nearest VA site is Lima VA Clinic, Lima (multi-specialty outpatient clinic), 15.3 mi away; 0 VA sites within 10 miles, 1 within 25.

Providers: 102 active health care providers list a practice address in this ZIP: 23 physicians, 6 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, 1 dentist, 12 mental health professionals, 1 pharmacy, 1 hospital, 6 nursing or assisted-living facilities, 1 home health or hospice agency; most common physician specialties: Family Medicine (10), Emergency Medicine (4), Obstetrics & Gynecology (3) (NPPES registry, August 2026).

Dialysis: nearest Usrc Blanchard Valley, Findlay, 15.2 mi away, 21 stations, Medicare ★★☆☆☆ (US Renal Care, Inc.); 0 within 5 miles, 0 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

2 certified homes within 5 miles, 10 within 15; 2 inside this ZIP.

Medicare rating

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

Beds

60 certified

Ownership

Non profit, church related

Penalties

no federal fines or payment denials since 2023 (CMS)

In this ZIP: MENNONITE MEMORIAL HOME (3★, 60 beds); WILLOW RIDGE OF MENNONITE HOME COMMUNITIES OF OHIO (5★, 20 beds).

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

0 offenses: 0 murders, 0 rapes, 0 robberies, 0 aggravated assaults (0.0 per 1,000 residents a year; Ohio 3.2)

Property

24 offenses: 2 burglaries, 19 thefts, 3 vehicle thefts (7.4 per 1,000 a year; Ohio 16.9)

Other

11 simple assaults, 8 vandalism reports, 0 drug offenses, 0 weapons violations

Reporting

incidents on file for 10 of 12 months of 2024 (January to October); the counts cover those months and the rates are annualized; 3,884 residents served; this department covers the 62% of the ZIP's residents in its territory, the rest fall under others

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

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

Police and post office

1 station within 3 miles, 2 within 8. Inside this ZIP: Bluffton Police Department.

Nearest post office: Bluffton Post Office, 0.4 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

1 station within 3 miles, 5 within 8.

Inside this ZIP: Bluffton Fire Department.

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 55 hours a week

Building

12,874 square feet

Bluffton Public Library

1 building, serves 6K people, 9 visits per resident a year, 98K items lent, 291 programs, $479K annual income

Inside this ZIP: Bluffton Public Library.

Museums: 3 inside this ZIP (Grace Albrecht Gallery, Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center, Swiss Community Historical Society); nearest Swiss Community Historical Society, Bluffton, 0.2 mi away; 3 within 5 miles, 10 within 15 (IMLS 2018 directory: museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos).

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

Grocery access

Distance

61% of residents live more than half a mile from a supermarket, 44% more than 1 mile

Without a car

0% live in a tract flagged for low income and low vehicle access; 2.2% of households have no vehicle (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Poverty

5.4% of residents below the poverty line

SNAP stores

1 supermarket or superstore and 0 grocery stores inside this ZIP takes SNAP, alongside 2 convenience stores, 2 other outlets (dollar, drug and discount stores); nearest supermarket or grocery store Community Markets (supermarket), 0.5 mi from the ZIP's center; 1 supermarket or grocery store within 3 miles (USDA, 2026)

SNAP households

4% of households received SNAP benefits in the past year (Census ACS 2020 to 2024)

Setting

64% of residents in urban tracts, across 5 tracts

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

Nearest listing: Bridenbaugh District No. 3 Schoolhouse, Pandora, 7.5 mi (certified 2005).

Place names (USGS): 2 named communities (Bluffton, Cordelia); 4 named streams end here (Little Riley Creek, Little Riley Creek, Marsh Run, Marsh Run); 2 named lakes or reservoirs (Buckeye Lake, Bluffton College Lake); 4 canal features. 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

• Bluffton Exempted Village83% of residentsExempted village school district
• Cory-Rawson Local15% of residentsLocal school district

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

3 public schools inside this ZIP: Bluffton Elementary School (4 stars); Bluffton High School (4 stars); Bluffton Middle School (4.5 stars). Nearest to the population center: Bluffton High School (4 stars), 0.4 mi; 3 within a mile, 3 within 3.

Enrolled here: 1,236 students attend the 3 public schools inside this ZIP with 2023-24 enrollment on file; 18.7 students per teacher. 40% of the 682 students at the 2 schools reporting it qualify for free or reduced-price meals (1 did not report). (NCES)

Enrollment: 1,018 residents attend kindergarten through 12th grade, 11% of them at private schools; 631 are in college or graduate school (Census ACS 2020 to 2024).

Money, fiscal 2023: Bluffton Exempted Village took in $14.3 million, 47% from the state, 46% local and 7% federal, and spent $10,839 per pupil on day-to-day operations for 1,204 students, 62% of it on instruction; capital outlay $0.8 million (Census school finance survey via NCES).

Child poverty: the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts 5.7% of Bluffton Exempted Village's school-age children below the poverty line (61 of 1,070 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 5 stars, progress 3 stars, gap closing 4 stars, early literacy 4 stars, graduation 4 stars, college and career readiness 3 stars

Achievement

performance index 92.1% of ODE's maximum score for the year (the average of the top 2% of district scores, not the highest score possible) (score 101.2, 100.2 the year before)

Graduation

94% of the class of 2024 graduated in four years; 67.5% of that class (graduates or not) showed college, career, workforce or military readiness

Spending

$11,618 per pupil in 2023-24 against $12,759 statewide

Teachers

average salary $71,551, 14 years of experience, 78.5% with a master's degree, 23.2% in their first years of teaching

Enrollment

1,121 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

Bluffton University is a private nonprofit college with 736 students over the 2023-24 year; published tuition and fees $36,298 a year; 50% of a 210-student entering class graduated (six-year bachelor).

2 institutions within 10 miles, 9 within 25. Inside this ZIP: Bluffton University.

Next nearest: Ohio Northern University (9 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

• Bluffton (village)62% of residentsVillage
• Richland Township, Allen County22% of residentsTownship
• Orange Township, Hancock County12% of residentsTownship
• Union Township, Hancock County3% of residentsTownship

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

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)

• Jim Jordan RU.S. House OH-4 · 81%Urbana · since 2007 · site
• Bob Latta R OH-5 · 19%Bowling Green · since 2007 · site
• Susan Manchester ROhio Senate 12 · 81%Waynesfield · since 2024 · site
• Rob McColley R 1 · 19%Napoleon · since 2017 · site
• Matt Huffman ROhio House 78 · 81%Lima · since 2024 · site
• Ty D. Mathews R 83 · 18%Findlay · since 2024 · site

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

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