Garden City vs Meridian

A side-by-side comparison of Garden City and Meridian: population, income, housing, and more.

Garden City and Meridian are places in Idaho. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Meridian has the higher population (124,865 vs 12,483 in Garden City). Meridian has the higher median household income ($98,686 vs $66,859 in Garden City). Meridian has the higher median home value ($485,000 vs $411,400 in Garden City).

Population, income & housing

	Garden City	Meridian
Population	12,483	124,865
Median age	44.0 yrs	37.4 yrs
Median household income	$66,859	$98,686
Median home value	$411,400	$485,000
Median gross rent	$1,206	$1,714
Housing units	5,724	46,762
Homeownership rate	65.7%	76.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	38.4%	44.4%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	2.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Garden City	Meridian
Population	11,819 → 12,483 (+5.6%)	101,905 → 124,865 (+22.5%)
Median household income	$49,318 → $66,859 (+35.6%)	$71,389 → $98,686 (+38.2%)
Median home value	$238,100 → $411,400 (+72.8%)	$274,900 → $485,000 (+76.4%)
Median gross rent	$907 → $1,206 (+33.0%)	$1,111 → $1,714 (+54.3%)

Garden City

Population

11,81912,483

Median household income

$49,318$66,859

Median home value

$238,100$411,400

Median gross rent

$907$1,206

Meridian

Population

101,905124,865

Median household income

$71,389$98,686

Median home value

$274,900$485,000

Median gross rent

$1,111$1,714

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Garden City	Meridian
Under 5	4.0%	5.9%
5 to 17	17.3%	20.5%
18 to 24	4.8%	8.1%
25 to 34	12.5%	12.4%
35 to 44	12.6%	14.8%
45 to 54	10.0%	13.2%
55 to 64	13.1%	10.5%
65 to 74	13.9%	8.8%
75 and over	11.7%	5.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Garden City	Meridian
White (non-Hispanic)	83.5%	81.4%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.3%
Asian	0.7%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	4.5%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	10.4%	9.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Garden City	Meridian
No high school diploma	8.8%	4.3%
High school graduate	22.7%	17.4%
Some college or associate's	30.0%	33.9%
Bachelor's degree	25.5%	29.3%
Graduate or professional degree	12.9%	15.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Garden City	Meridian
Drove alone	68.5%	73.7%
Carpooled	7.8%	6.3%
Public transit	0.5%	0.1%
Walked	0.6%	1.0%
Bicycle	2.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	18.4%	17.2%
Other means	2.1%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Garden City	Meridian
1-unit, detached	51.6%	82.7%
1-unit, attached	13.7%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	6.1%
5 to 19 units	5.8%	4.3%
20 or more units	7.2%	2.9%
Mobile home & other	16.2%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	Garden City	Meridian
Poverty rate	10.9%	6.2%
Average household size	2.24	2.73
Mean commute (minutes)	21	22
Median year structure built	1994	2006