ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 78521

Cameron County, Texas: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.

Data updated 2026-08-24

163
Property rate /100K (county)
87,040
Population (ZIP)
59
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 78521 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 78521 sits within Cameron County, TX, a county whose reported crime runs below the national average (see the county-level FBI figures below, not a ZIP-specific calculation).

Reported crime here runs well below the national average: 59 violent incidents and 163 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.

ZIP 78521 is the largest ZIP in Cameron County by population, 87,040 residents (#1 of 16 county ZIPs), across 93.74 square miles (929/sq mi). For a full breakdown of Cameron County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Cameron County crime page linked below.

ZIP 78521 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Cameron County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 78521 Census context

These are ZIP/ZCTA demographic estimates, separate from the county-level FBI proxy above. They describe the local settlement, not a crime rate.

Median household income
$38,633
Median age
30.9 years
Owner-occupied homes
59%
Occupied homes
26,617

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 5-year ZCTA estimates (income, age, and occupied housing tenure).

How useful is the county proxy for ZIP 78521?

Within the participating-agency records for Cameron County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 83% below and property crime is 90% below. The two submitted measures point in the same direction, but they do not establish complete county coverage or turn the result into a ZIP-level rating for 78521. Both comparisons use the same 2024 county reporting population and FBI-submitted counts, so the two directions are internally comparable for this release, not evidence about a different year.

Within the county, 78521 is one of the most populous ZIPs (#1 of 16). Its 87,040 residents therefore represent a comparatively large share of the local population, but the county total still combines reports from places outside this ZIP.

Cameron County UCR book ZIP 78521 inherits

ZIP 78521 itself is about 929 people per Census sq mi across 93.7 sq mi (87,040 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 78521's 87,040 residents are about 20.7% of the 2024 county reporting population (421,017), a large postal share of a county-wide rate.

Cameron County leans on larceny-theft at 46% of reported offenses (mix index 2,851). ZIP 78521 has no separate FBI offense book.

Cameron County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts -13% vs 2023; property counts -12% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Cameron County offense mix (2024)

Mix index is HHI × 10,000 on county offense-type shares. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero; still county-agency data, not a ZIP-native FBI table.

Nationwide peers for ZIP 78521

Similar county violent rate (~59/100K)

Similar Census population (~87,040)

County detail: Cameron County · State atlas: Texas

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ZIP population, land area, 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, ACS 5-year estimates) and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10 (county-level crime, attributed via ZIP-to-county crosswalk).

Verify with Census.gov Geography and FBI.gov UCR.

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page combines Census ZIP-level figures with a ZIP-to-county crosswalk to attribute FBI UCR crime data honestly, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.