Fostoria vs Spencer

A side-by-side comparison of Fostoria and Spencer: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Spencer has the higher population (11,393 vs 184 in Fostoria). Fostoria has the higher median household income ($83,125 vs $57,068 in Spencer). Spencer has the higher median home value ($178,300 vs $150,900 in Fostoria).

Population, income & housing

	Fostoria	Spencer
Population	184	11,393
Median age	56.4 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$83,125	$57,068
Median home value	$150,900	$178,300
Median gross rent	—	$795
Housing units	108	5,640
Homeownership rate	92.7%	67.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.3%	28.2%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fostoria	Spencer
Population	211 → 184 (-12.8%)	11,052 → 11,393 (+3.1%)
Median household income	$74,583 → $83,125 (+11.5%)	$46,545 → $57,068 (+22.6%)
Median home value	$106,900 → $150,900 (+41.2%)	$128,800 → $178,300 (+38.4%)
Median gross rent	$719 → $750 (+4.3%)	$684 → $795 (+16.2%)

Fostoria

Population

211184

Median household income

$74,583$83,125

Median home value

$106,900$150,900

Median gross rent

$719$750

Spencer

Population

11,05211,393

Median household income

$46,545$57,068

Median home value

$128,800$178,300

Median gross rent

$684$795

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fostoria	Spencer
Under 5	0.5%	4.5%
5 to 17	8.7%	18.3%
18 to 24	7.6%	7.5%
25 to 34	3.3%	11.1%
35 to 44	4.3%	12.9%
45 to 54	21.2%	11.1%
55 to 64	30.4%	13.2%
65 to 74	12.5%	10.9%
75 and over	11.4%	10.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fostoria	Spencer
White (non-Hispanic)	91.8%	90.4%
Black or African American	1.1%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.6%
Asian	0.0%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.3%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	2.7%	5.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fostoria	Spencer
No high school diploma	7.2%	4.8%
High school graduate	35.3%	33.4%
Some college or associate's	37.3%	33.6%
Bachelor's degree	17.6%	19.6%
Graduate or professional degree	2.6%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fostoria	Spencer
Drove alone	83.1%	79.3%
Carpooled	16.1%	8.6%
Public transit	0.0%	1.6%
Walked	0.8%	4.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.4%
Worked from home	0.0%	5.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fostoria	Spencer
1-unit, detached	95.4%	67.2%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	2.1%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	9.2%
5 to 19 units	4.6%	10.7%
20 or more units	0.0%	9.3%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	1.5%

Poverty & households

	Fostoria	Spencer
Poverty rate	0.0%	14.1%
Average household size	1.92	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	20	17
Median year structure built	1952	1971