Royal vs Spencer

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

Royal 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 518 in Royal). Royal has the higher median household income ($57,450 vs $57,068 in Spencer). Spencer has the higher median home value ($178,300 vs $79,400 in Royal).

Population, income & housing

	Royal	Spencer
Population	518	11,393
Median age	31.2 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$57,450	$57,068
Median home value	$79,400	$178,300
Median gross rent	$798	$795
Housing units	231	5,640
Homeownership rate	68.9%	67.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.7%	28.2%
Unemployment rate	3.1%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Royal	Spencer
Population	316 → 518 (+63.9%)	11,052 → 11,393 (+3.1%)
Median household income	$64,250 → $57,450 (-10.6%)	$46,545 → $57,068 (+22.6%)
Median home value	$82,700 → $79,400 (-4.0%)	$128,800 → $178,300 (+38.4%)
Median gross rent	$675 → $798 (+18.2%)	$684 → $795 (+16.2%)

Royal

Population

316518

Median household income

$64,250$57,450

Median home value

$82,700$79,400

Median gross rent

$675$798

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)

	Royal	Spencer
Under 5	8.7%	4.5%
5 to 17	18.0%	18.3%
18 to 24	18.5%	7.5%
25 to 34	8.3%	11.1%
35 to 44	10.8%	12.9%
45 to 54	10.0%	11.1%
55 to 64	11.2%	13.2%
65 to 74	11.6%	10.9%
75 and over	2.9%	10.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Royal	Spencer
White (non-Hispanic)	82.6%	90.4%
Black or African American	1.5%	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	3.3%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	12.5%	5.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Royal	Spencer
No high school diploma	4.9%	4.8%
High school graduate	39.4%	33.4%
Some college or associate's	35.9%	33.6%
Bachelor's degree	14.8%	19.6%
Graduate or professional degree	4.9%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Royal	Spencer
Drove alone	65.2%	79.3%
Carpooled	23.0%	8.6%
Public transit	0.0%	1.6%
Walked	5.3%	4.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.4%
Worked from home	5.0%	5.6%
Other means	1.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Royal	Spencer
1-unit, detached	88.3%	67.2%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	2.1%
2 to 4 units	10.8%	9.2%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	10.7%
20 or more units	0.0%	9.3%
Mobile home & other	0.9%	1.5%

Poverty & households

	Royal	Spencer
Poverty rate	15.3%	14.1%
Average household size	2.48	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	24	17
Median year structure built	1938	1971