Charter Oak vs Dow City

A side-by-side comparison of Charter Oak and Dow City: population, income, housing, and more.

Charter Oak and Dow City are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Charter Oak has the higher population (489 vs 384 in Dow City). Charter Oak has the higher median household income ($58,068 vs $46,932 in Dow City). Dow City has the higher median home value ($130,200 vs $81,600 in Charter Oak).

Population, income & housing

	Charter Oak	Dow City
Population	489	384
Median age	59.5 yrs	48.3 yrs
Median household income	$58,068	$46,932
Median home value	$81,600	$130,200
Median gross rent	$710	$714
Housing units	229	179
Homeownership rate	65.9%	69.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	9.8%	3.8%
Unemployment rate	1.5%	0.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Charter Oak	Dow City
Population	624 → 489 (-21.6%)	485 → 384 (-20.8%)
Median household income	$44,886 → $58,068 (+29.4%)	$33,500 → $46,932 (+40.1%)
Median home value	$63,300 → $81,600 (+28.9%)	$70,500 → $130,200 (+84.7%)
Median gross rent	$630 → $710 (+12.7%)	$568 → $714 (+25.7%)

Charter Oak

Population

624489

Median household income

$44,886$58,068

Median home value

$63,300$81,600

Median gross rent

$630$710

Dow City

Population

485384

Median household income

$33,500$46,932

Median home value

$70,500$130,200

Median gross rent

$568$714

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Charter Oak	Dow City
Under 5	5.3%	2.1%
5 to 17	11.7%	13.8%
18 to 24	5.5%	16.4%
25 to 34	10.0%	8.1%
35 to 44	8.0%	4.7%
45 to 54	6.3%	14.1%
55 to 64	14.7%	16.4%
65 to 74	18.2%	15.4%
75 and over	20.2%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Charter Oak	Dow City
White (non-Hispanic)	93.7%	79.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.1%	6.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	14.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Charter Oak	Dow City
No high school diploma	6.9%	7.3%
High school graduate	54.4%	45.8%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	43.1%
Bachelor's degree	4.2%	3.8%
Graduate or professional degree	5.5%	0.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Charter Oak	Dow City
Drove alone	95.3%	71.8%
Carpooled	1.0%	3.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	23.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	0.0%
Other means	3.7%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Charter Oak	Dow City
1-unit, detached	100.0%	70.9%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	17.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	6.1%

Poverty & households

	Charter Oak	Dow City
Poverty rate	12.7%	15.1%
Average household size	2.19	2.27
Mean commute (minutes)	23	16
Median year structure built	1938	1961