Blairstown vs Shellsburg

A side-by-side comparison of Blairstown and Shellsburg: population, income, housing, and more.

Blairstown and Shellsburg are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Shellsburg has the higher population (752 vs 652 in Blairstown). Blairstown has the higher median household income ($74,167 vs $69,750 in Shellsburg). Shellsburg has the higher median home value ($184,100 vs $164,300 in Blairstown).

Population, income & housing

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
Population	652	752
Median age	37.8 yrs	43.7 yrs
Median household income	$74,167	$69,750
Median home value	$164,300	$184,100
Median gross rent	$783	$928
Housing units	279	381
Homeownership rate	79.8%	86.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.1%	14.1%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	2.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
Population	703 → 652 (-7.3%)	959 → 752 (-21.6%)
Median household income	$63,958 → $74,167 (+16.0%)	$52,159 → $69,750 (+33.7%)
Median home value	$118,300 → $164,300 (+38.9%)	$153,300 → $184,100 (+20.1%)
Median gross rent	$563 → $783 (+39.1%)	$769 → $928 (+20.7%)

Blairstown

Population

703652

Median household income

$63,958$74,167

Median home value

$118,300$164,300

Median gross rent

$563$783

Shellsburg

Population

959752

Median household income

$52,159$69,750

Median home value

$153,300$184,100

Median gross rent

$769$928

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
Under 5	11.2%	6.5%
5 to 17	7.7%	15.0%
18 to 24	8.9%	8.8%
25 to 34	20.2%	11.7%
35 to 44	12.3%	9.4%
45 to 54	12.4%	14.0%
55 to 64	13.5%	17.2%
65 to 74	4.4%	4.8%
75 and over	9.4%	12.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
White (non-Hispanic)	88.2%	94.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.0%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	8.3%	3.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
No high school diploma	5.3%	5.5%
High school graduate	45.6%	43.7%
Some college or associate's	32.9%	36.6%
Bachelor's degree	13.8%	12.0%
Graduate or professional degree	2.3%	2.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
Drove alone	78.5%	81.1%
Carpooled	8.6%	7.7%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.1%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.7%	10.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
1-unit, detached	87.1%	75.9%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	1.3%
2 to 4 units	7.9%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	2.2%	2.6%
20 or more units	0.0%	15.7%
Mobile home & other	2.9%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Blairstown	Shellsburg
Poverty rate	13.2%	2.9%
Average household size	2.63	2.68
Mean commute (minutes)	28	26
Median year structure built	1955	1977