Chicago, IL

ZIP code 60601 is assigned to Chicago, IL, and falls within Cook County. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 16,292 people live inside it.

At 41,882 residents per square mile spread over 0.389 square miles, 60601 reads as a dense urban area. It is a mid-sized postal code by population, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings here sit well above the national picture. The median household income of $127,323 places 60601 in the upper reaches of American postal codes, ahead of 93% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Housing in 60601 costs well above the national median. A typical home is valued at $495,400 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $2,451 a month. This is firmly renter territory — 73.0% of occupied homes are rented, a pattern typical of city centres, student areas and neighbourhoods with a lot of apartment stock.

The building stock is dominated by larger apartment buildings of twenty units or more, which account for 94.4% of housing units here. The median construction year is 2002, making the housing here relatively modern.

The population skews younger than the country as a whole, with a median age of 33.5 against 42 nationally. Households average just 1.69 people, and 50.6% consist of one person living alone — a signature of areas with a lot of studio and one-bedroom stock.

Getting to work takes 28.0 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is walked at 32.9% of workers, while 14.4% take public transit, 32.9% walk, 29.4% work from home. Commute patterns are one of the better proxies for how a place actually functions day to day.

Beyond addressing mail, 60601 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 60601 offers a compact profile of Chicago: 16,292 residents, a median household income of $127,323, 85.6% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 2.0%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 60601 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Chicago may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.