New housing units permitted
397
Across 228 permitted buildings. Total construction value: $79.7M.
ZIP 19523, PA (19523)
Berks County · Reading, PA · Population 170
Fresh.Data current as of Apr 24, 2026
PA 19523 (ZIP 19523) sits in Berks County within the Reading metro area. The page draws on 1 federal data feed retrieved Apr 24. Health-survey coverage is limited for this ZIP. No NCES schools are mapped to this ZIP in the current dataset. 2 colleges and universities serve the area, with median in-state tuition of $11,314. Local establishments report average pay of $28,318 per worker (Census ZBP) — below the US average. Social vulnerability is low in this ZIP at the 11th percentile (CDC SVI), reflecting strong baseline resilience to public-health emergencies and natural disasters. FEMA has issued 23 federal disaster declarations affecting this ZIP since 1965 — a high-frequency exposure profile. Annual precipitation averages 50.8" — a wet-climate ZCTA per NOAA's 1991–2020 Normals. Per IRS migration filings (2022-2023), the area's primary county lost $111,581,000 in net taxable income to other counties. Both healthcare access and on-paper school density skew lighter than national norms; what shows up here is a snapshot, not a verdict — neighborhood-level texture matters at this scale. Notable: fair market rent of $1,480 for a two-bedroom. Every figure on this page links to its underlying federal dataset with a retrieval date so you can audit the freshness yourself.
Loading map…
Fair Market Rent
Fresh.HUD SAFMR · May 1, 2026Studio
$1,020
/month
1 Bed
$1,160
/month
2 Bed
$1,480
/month
3 Bed
$1,820
/month
4 Bed
$1,960
/month
HUD Fair Market Rents represent the 40th percentile of standard-quality rental housing in this area. FY2026 data.
New housing construction
Single-family
214
54% of total units
Multifamily (2+ unit)
183
46% of total units
Single-family value
$60.2M
construction value
Multifamily value
$19.5M
construction value
Apartment construction (5+ unit buildings) accounts for 42% of new units this year — the area is densifying, not just adding single-family stock.
Based on county-level data (2024).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (census.gov/construction/bps). Public domain. BPS reports annual residential building permits from local permit-issuing jurisdictions, aggregated to county. A permit reflects intent to build, not a completed unit — actual construction lags by 6-24 months for multifamily projects.
Business & employment
Business establishments
5
Total employment
88
Annual payroll
$2.5M
Average annual pay
$28,318
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Business Patterns (census.gov). Public domain. ZBP covers establishments with paid employees; Census suppresses employment and payroll values when fewer employers operate in a ZIP than would protect their confidentiality.
Employment & wages
Average annual pay
$63,608
Average weekly wage
$1,223
Total employment
173,692
Total establishments
8,917
That is roughly 3% below the US national average of $65,470 per worker.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (bls.gov/cew). Public domain. QCEW is derived from state unemployment-insurance filings and covers ~95% of US jobs. Figures are county-level totals assigned to ZIPs whose primary county matches; small-employer cells are suppressed by BLS to protect employer confidentiality.
Unemployment
Unemployment rate
3.7%
That is 0.3 percentage points below the US national unemployment rate of about 4.0%.
Labor force
219,283
Employed
211,167
Unemployed
8,116
Based on Berks County, PA data (2024).
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics (bls.gov/lau). Public domain. LAUS publishes monthly and annual labor-force estimates for every US county. Figures are county-level totals assigned to ZIPs whose primary county matches.
Public transit
FTA tracks transit service at the urbanized-area level. Numbers below reflect the agencies and modes serving the area that contains this ZIP, not stop-level coverage.
Service status
Available
Allentown--Bethlehem, PA--NJ
Reporting agencies
13
Largest: Borough of Pottstown
Annual ridership
—
unlinked trips · 2024
Source: U.S. Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database (transit.dot.gov). Public domain.
Federal Disaster Declarations
Federally Declared Disasters
23
Date Range
1965–2020
Most Recent Declaration
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Biological — declared March 30, 2020 (DR-4506)
Incident period: January 20, 2020 – May 11, 2023
Top Incident Types
- Severe Storm7 (30%)
- Flood6 (26%)
- Hurricane4 (17%)
- Snowstorm3 (13%)
- Biological2 (9%)
- Other1 (4%)
Individual Assistance
9
Direct help to disaster survivors
Households Program
3
Housing & temporary lodging support
Public Assistance
18
Repair of public facilities & roads
Hazard Mitigation
8
Funding to reduce future disaster risk
FEMA declares disasters at the county level; counts here include every federally declared disaster touching any county that overlaps this ZIP. Statewide declarations and pre-1964 records without county granularity are excluded. Program flags reflect which FEMA assistance categories were activated (Individual Assistance, Households, Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation). Source: fema.gov/openfema. Public domain.
Climate
30-year averages (1991-2020) from the nearest GHCN-D weather station. Temperature and precipitation values reflect typical annual conditions, not any single year.
Avg. temperature
52.5°F
42.8° – 62.2°
Annual precipitation
50.8"
Annual snowfall
28.4"
Heating · cooling days
5,377.3 · 858.6
Annual base 65°F
Nearest station: GLENMOORE, PA US, 8.9 miles from the centroid of ZIP 19523 (ZIP 19523)
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals (ncei.noaa.gov). Public domain.
Air quality
Median daily AQI
43
GoodGood 254dModerate 110dUSG 2d
Peak AQI (2024)
105
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
Primary pollutant
Ozone
218 days as main pollutant
Days measured
366
Based on Berks County data (2024).
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System (epa.gov). Public domain. Only counties with EPA AQS monitoring stations appear here (~30% of US counties); rural ZIPs whose primary county has no monitor will not show this section.
Community health profile
Years of potential life lost (per 100K)
7,368
That is roughly 832 years per 100,000 below the national county median (~8,200).
Premature death is the headline composite outcome CHR reports — age-adjusted, all-cause, before age 75.
Fair or poor health
18%
of adults self-report
Poor physical health days
4.1
avg per adult per month
Poor mental health days
5.2
avg per adult per month
Uninsured
7.5%
of residents under 65
Primary care MDs
63
per 100,000 residents
Preventable hospital stays
3,496
per 100K Medicare enrollees
Food environment (0-10)
8.5
10 = best access & security
Exercise access
86%
residents near a facility
Flu vaccinated
55%
of Medicare enrollees
Low birth weight (under 2,500 g) accounts for 8.1% of live births in this county — an early-life health input that downstream outcomes track against.
Based on Berks data (2025 CHR release).
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (countyhealthrankings.org). Annual release. Underlying source datasets vary by measure (CDC BRFSS, NCHS Vital Statistics, AHA, USDA Food Environment Atlas, and others). Figures are county-level and assigned to every ZIP whose primary county matches.
Food access
Food access status
Moderate food access challenges
17.4% of Berks County, PA residents live more than 1 mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural) from the nearest supermarket.
Grocery stores
0.18
per 1,000 residents
Supercenters & clubs
0.03
per 1,000 residents
SNAP-authorized stores
0.81
accepting food benefits
Fast-food restaurants
0.64
per 1,000 residents
Among low-income residents, 3.3% are low-access — those without a supermarket within 1 mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural).
Per-1,000 figures show how many of each store type exist in Berks County, PA for every 1,000 residents. Higher grocery and supercenter density usually means easier access to fresh food; higher convenience-store-only density (with low grocery rate) often signals a food swamp.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Food Environment Atlas (ers.usda.gov). County-level metrics fanned to ZIP via the primary county in the Census ZCTA-county relationship file. Variable years differ per family (stores ~2020, low-access ~2019).
Safety
FBI publishes crime data at the county level. Numbers below cover the primary county that contains this ZIP. Rates are per 100,000 residents in the area covered by reporting agencies.
Violent crime rate
—
per 100K residents · 4 reports
Property crime rate
—
per 100K residents · 0 reports
Homicide
0
Robbery
0
Burglary
0
Vehicle theft
0
County-level data for Berks (2024)
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (cde.ucr.cjis.gov). Public domain. Coverage varies by reporting agency; areas with partial agency coverage may understate true crime totals.
Who’s moving in and out
Net migration (2022-2023)
▼−758 people
−888 households • −$111.6M net AGI flow
Moved in
9,508households
16,121 people • $554.2M AGI
Moved out
10,396households
16,879 people • $665.8M AGI
Where new residents came from
- Montgomery County, PA — 1,023 households
- Lancaster County, PA — 571 households
- Lehigh County, PA — 546 households
- Chester County, PA — 534 households
- Philadelphia County, PA — 308 households
Where departing residents went
- Montgomery County, PA — 791 households
- Lancaster County, PA — 765 households
- Lehigh County, PA — 490 households
- Chester County, PA — 408 households
- Schuylkill County, PA — 375 households
Incoming households reported an average AGI of $58,288 versus departing households' $64,043.
Source: U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Migration Data (irs.gov). Public domain. Migration is measured by year-over-year changes in the address on individual tax returns; figures are county-level totals attributed to ZIPs whose primary county matches. Foreign migration contributes to inflow/outflow totals but does not appear in the top-county lists. Small flows are suppressed by IRS to protect taxpayer confidentiality.
Taxes & benefits in Pennsylvania
State-level rules that apply to every resident of ZIP 19523. Numbers reflect the most recent published year per source.
Tax rates
Income tax
3.07%
flat · 1 brackets
Sales tax (combined)
6.34%
State 6.00% · avg local 0.34%
Property tax (effective)
1.68%
Median $3,947/year
Tax burden rank
29 of 50
10.40% of personal income
Paid family leave
Program
No program
No program
Safety net
SNAP eligibility
200% FPL
Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (raises gross income limit above federal 130% floor). No asset test.
Sources: Tax Foundation (state tax rates & brackets), Bipartisan Policy Center (paid family leave), USDA FNS (SNAP categorical eligibility).
Other ZIPs near 19523
Nearby ZIPs by distance
19543 (New Morgan, 2.9 mi) · 19520 (Elverson, 4 mi) · 19508 (Birdsboro, 4.2 mi) · 19540 (Alleghenyville, 6.6 mi) · 19518 (Amity Gardens, 7.2 mi) · 17555 (Churchtown, 7.9 mi)
Compare ZIP-level stats — population, schools, housing, climate — across nearby areas. Source: U.S. Census Bureau ZCTA basemap.
Data sources used on this page
All data on this page is sourced from federal government datasets · Not AI-generated · Methodology
Health profile
Crude prevalence estimates from CDC PLACES, derived from BRFSS small-area modeling. Population-level figures only.
All Teeth Lost
11.9%
No national benchmark available.
Short Sleep Duration
39.0%
No national benchmark available.
Colorectal Cancer Screening
68.7%
No national benchmark available.
Dental Visit
69.8%
No national benchmark available.
Mammography
75.7%
No national benchmark available.
Colleges & universities nearby
Colleges in this area
2
Median in-state tuition
$11,314
Median earnings (10 yr)
$53,775
- 4-Year
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown, PA · 19530
- In-state tuition
- $11,314
- Out-of-state tuition
- $16,068
- Acceptance rate
- 90.8%
- Graduation rate
- 54.0%
- Median earnings (10 yr)
- $53,775
- Median student debt
- $26,000
- Certificate
Berks Career & Technology Center
Leesport, PA · 19533
- In-state tuition
- —
- Out-of-state tuition
- —
- Acceptance rate
- —
- Graduation rate
- 70.0%
- Median earnings (10 yr)
- —
- Median student debt
- —
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov). Public domain data. Earnings figures reflect median earnings 10 years after entry for federally-aided students.
What these numbers say together
PA 19523 (ZIP 19523) sits in Berks County within the Reading metro area. The page draws on 1 federal data feed retrieved Apr 24. Health-survey coverage is limited for this ZIP. No NCES schools are mapped to this ZIP in the current dataset. 2 colleges and universities serve the area, with median in-state tuition of $11,314. Local establishments report average pay of $28,318 per worker (Census ZBP) — below the US average. Social vulnerability is low in this ZIP at the 11th percentile (CDC SVI), reflecting strong baseline resilience to public-health emergencies and natural disasters. FEMA has issued 23 federal disaster declarations affecting this ZIP since 1965 — a high-frequency exposure profile. Annual precipitation averages 50.8" — a wet-climate ZCTA per NOAA's 1991–2020 Normals. Per IRS migration filings (2022-2023), the area's primary county lost $111,581,000 in net taxable income to other counties. Both healthcare access and on-paper school density skew lighter than national norms; what shows up here is a snapshot, not a verdict — neighborhood-level texture matters at this scale. Notable: fair market rent of $1,480 for a two-bedroom. Every figure on this page links to its underlying federal dataset with a retrieval date so you can audit the freshness yourself.
Both surfaces skew lighter than national averages. That isn’t a verdict — small-area estimates compress real neighborhood-level texture, and a single ZIP reading can miss a district line or a hospital corridor sitting just outside it. Treat this as a starting point for fieldwork, not a conclusion.
Each figure on this page links to the original federal dataset with its retrieval date — this synthesis is a reading, not a substitute for the underlying records.
Frequently Asked Questions — ZIP 19523
How many businesses are in ZIP 19523?
As of 2022, 5 business establishments operated in ZIP 19523 employing 88 workers (Census ZIP Business Patterns, retrieved May 3, 2026).
What is the average salary in ZIP 19523?
The average annual pay across all local establishments in ZIP 19523 is $28,318, based on Census ZIP Business Patterns 2022 data (retrieved May 3, 2026).
How vulnerable is ZIP 19523 to disasters and public health emergencies?
According to the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (2022), ZIP 19523 ranks in the 11th percentile nationally for social vulnerability — a low vulnerability profile (retrieved May 3, 2026).
What is the biggest vulnerability factor in ZIP 19523?
Socioeconomic Status is the highest-scoring CDC SVI theme for ZIP 19523, ranking in the 49th percentile nationally (CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index 2022, retrieved May 3, 2026).
How many federally declared disasters has ZIP 19523 experienced?
FEMA has recorded 23 federal disaster declarations affecting ZIP 19523 between 1965–2020 (FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, retrieved May 3, 2026).
What kinds of disasters most often hit ZIP 19523?
Severe Storm is the most common federally declared disaster type affecting ZIP 19523, accounting for 7 of 23 declarations (30%, FEMA OpenFEMA, retrieved May 3, 2026).
What was the most recent disaster declared for ZIP 19523?
The most recent FEMA disaster declaration affecting ZIP 19523 was "COVID-19 PANDEMIC" — a biological declared in 2020 (DR-4506) (FEMA OpenFEMA, retrieved May 3, 2026).
What colleges are near ZIP 19523?
2 colleges and universities are listed near ZIP 19523 by the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, including Kutztown University Of Pennsylvania and Berks Career & Technology Center (retrieved May 2, 2026).
What is the average tuition at colleges near ZIP 19523?
Median in-state tuition across 2 nearby institutions is $11,314 (College Scorecard, retrieved May 2, 2026).
What do graduates earn from colleges near ZIP 19523?
Graduates of nearby colleges earn a median of $53,775 ten years after entry (College Scorecard, retrieved May 2, 2026).
What is the climate like in ZIP 19523?
ZIP 19523 has an average annual temperature of 52.5°F and 50.8" of annual precipitation based on the GLENMOORE, PA US weather station 8.9 miles from the ZIP centroid (NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, retrieved May 8, 2026).
Does ZIP 19523 have public transit?
Yes — ZIP 19523 is part of the Allentown--Bethlehem, PA--NJ urbanized area, primarily served by Borough of Pottstown (National Transit Database 2024, retrieved May 4, 2026).
What taxes apply in ZIP 19523?
Pennsylvania has a flat income tax with a top rate of 3.07%. Combined sales tax: 6.34% (Tax Foundation 2025).
Does Pennsylvania have paid family leave?
Pennsylvania has no state paid family leave program (Bipartisan Policy Center 2026).
What data is available for ZIP 19523?
This page covers health outcomes from CDC PLACES (5 metrics), colleges from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2 institutions), local business & employment from Census ZIP Business Patterns (2022), social vulnerability scores from the CDC/ATSDR SVI (2022), federal disaster declarations from FEMA OpenFEMA (23 on record), climate normals from NOAA NCEI (1991-2020), county-level crime data from the FBI Crime Data Explorer (2024), public transit coverage from the National Transit Database (2024), and state-level tax rates from the Tax Foundation. Data is refreshed on Mubboo's standard schedule.
How current is this data?
Health data retrieved Apr 24, 2026 from CDC PLACES. College data retrieved May 2, 2026 from U.S. Dept of Education College Scorecard. Business & employment retrieved May 3, 2026 from Census ZBP (2022). Social vulnerability scores retrieved May 3, 2026 from CDC/ATSDR SVI (2022). Federal disaster declarations retrieved May 3, 2026 from FEMA OpenFEMA (23 on record). Climate normals retrieved May 8, 2026 from NOAA NCEI (1991-2020). County-level crime data retrieved May 4, 2026 from the FBI Crime Data Explorer (2024). Transit coverage retrieved May 4, 2026 from the National Transit Database (2024). State-level tax rates retrieved 2026-05-05 15:58:22.284+00 from the Tax Foundation.
Other ZIPs near 19523
Nearby ZIPs by distance
19543 (New Morgan, 2.9 mi) · 19520 (Elverson, 4 mi) · 19508 (Birdsboro, 4.2 mi) · 19540 (Alleghenyville, 6.6 mi) · 19518 (Amity Gardens, 7.2 mi) · 17555 (Churchtown, 7.9 mi)
Compare ZIP-level stats — population, schools, housing, climate — across nearby areas. Source: U.S. Census Bureau ZCTA basemap.
More Info topics
Have a specific question about ZIP 19523?
Ask Mubboo — launching Q4 2026.
Data refreshed via Mubboo's ETL pipeline; oldest source on this page retrieved Apr 24, 2026.
Social Vulnerability Index
Overall SVI
11th percentile
Low Vulnerability
Based on 2 census tracts, population 221
Vulnerability Themes
Households Without Vehicle
1
Limited English Speakers
1
Persons with Disability
29
Without HS Diploma
20
Without Health Insurance
28
Adults Age 65+
37
The Social Vulnerability Index uses U.S. Census data to identify communities most at risk during public health emergencies and natural disasters. Higher percentiles indicate greater vulnerability. Tract-level scores are aggregated to this ZCTA via Census 2020 ZCTA→Tract crosswalk, weighted by land-area share. Source: atsdr.cdc.gov. Public domain.