Gary vs Merrillville

A side-by-side comparison of Gary and Merrillville: population, income, housing, and more.

Gary and Merrillville are places in Indiana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Gary has the higher population (68,604 vs 36,343 in Merrillville). Merrillville has the higher median household income ($64,791 vs $37,380 in Gary). Merrillville has the higher median home value ($194,000 vs $85,300 in Gary).

Population, income & housing

	Gary	Merrillville
Population	68,604	36,343
Median age	36.4 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$37,380	$64,791
Median home value	$85,300	$194,000
Median gross rent	$975	$1,304
Housing units	37,963	16,255
Homeownership rate	47.4%	68.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.3%	25.2%
Unemployment rate	13.0%	6.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Gary	Merrillville
Population	76,010 → 68,604 (-9.7%)	34,889 → 36,343 (+4.2%)
Median household income	$31,936 → $37,380 (+17.0%)	$60,803 → $64,791 (+6.6%)
Median home value	$66,100 → $85,300 (+29.0%)	$136,100 → $194,000 (+42.5%)
Median gross rent	$785 → $975 (+24.2%)	$1,082 → $1,304 (+20.5%)

Gary

Population

76,01068,604

Median household income

$31,936$37,380

Median home value

$66,100$85,300

Median gross rent

$785$975

Merrillville

Population

34,88936,343

Median household income

$60,803$64,791

Median home value

$136,100$194,000

Median gross rent

$1,082$1,304

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Gary	Merrillville
Under 5	7.0%	4.5%
5 to 17	21.3%	16.9%
18 to 24	7.8%	9.5%
25 to 34	12.0%	11.4%
35 to 44	11.7%	12.0%
45 to 54	10.1%	11.9%
55 to 64	11.4%	13.2%
65 to 74	11.5%	12.8%
75 and over	7.1%	7.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Gary	Merrillville
White (non-Hispanic)	10.3%	34.3%
Black or African American	76.0%	44.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	1.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.9%
Two or more races	2.9%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	9.8%	15.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Gary	Merrillville
No high school diploma	14.0%	7.8%
High school graduate	37.3%	36.1%
Some college or associate's	34.4%	30.9%
Bachelor's degree	9.4%	15.8%
Graduate or professional degree	4.8%	9.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Gary	Merrillville
Drove alone	76.2%	80.4%
Carpooled	12.2%	6.0%
Public transit	2.6%	1.4%
Walked	0.5%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.4%	8.3%
Other means	2.9%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Gary	Merrillville
1-unit, detached	71.8%	61.5%
1-unit, attached	5.9%	8.2%
2 to 4 units	6.1%	3.7%
5 to 19 units	8.2%	14.5%
20 or more units	5.7%	10.5%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	1.5%

Poverty & households

	Gary	Merrillville
Poverty rate	32.9%	13.7%
Average household size	2.48	2.32
Mean commute (minutes)	26	32
Median year structure built	1957	1978