Cresco vs Elma

A side-by-side comparison of Cresco and Elma: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cresco has the higher population (3,901 vs 618 in Elma). Cresco has the higher median household income ($60,769 vs $41,528 in Elma). Cresco has the higher median home value ($105,200 vs $71,400 in Elma).

Population, income & housing

	Cresco	Elma
Population	3,901	618
Median age	39.5 yrs	48.0 yrs
Median household income	$60,769	$41,528
Median home value	$105,200	$71,400
Median gross rent	$814	$668
Housing units	1,795	321
Homeownership rate	71.0%	62.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	11.7%
Unemployment rate	0.2%	2.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cresco	Elma
Population	3,768 → 3,901 (+3.5%)	536 → 618 (+15.3%)
Median household income	$50,000 → $60,769 (+21.5%)	$48,214 → $41,528 (-13.9%)
Median home value	$85,600 → $105,200 (+22.9%)	$59,800 → $71,400 (+19.4%)
Median gross rent	$637 → $814 (+27.8%)	$575 → $668 (+16.2%)

Cresco

Population

3,7683,901

Median household income

$50,000$60,769

Median home value

$85,600$105,200

Median gross rent

$637$814

Elma

Population

536618

Median household income

$48,214$41,528

Median home value

$59,800$71,400

Median gross rent

$575$668

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cresco	Elma
Under 5	6.5%	3.6%
5 to 17	16.1%	13.8%
18 to 24	6.8%	16.0%
25 to 34	11.8%	5.0%
35 to 44	14.2%	11.0%
45 to 54	8.5%	11.0%
55 to 64	15.2%	10.2%
65 to 74	11.7%	7.0%
75 and over	9.1%	22.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cresco	Elma
White (non-Hispanic)	91.8%	91.3%
Black or African American	0.1%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.1%	6.3%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cresco	Elma
No high school diploma	4.9%	8.5%
High school graduate	45.3%	54.9%
Some college or associate's	29.9%	25.0%
Bachelor's degree	14.1%	8.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.8%	3.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cresco	Elma
Drove alone	80.6%	79.3%
Carpooled	6.4%	10.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.1%	4.6%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.0%	5.5%
Other means	0.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cresco	Elma
1-unit, detached	88.6%	80.4%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	0.3%
5 to 19 units	3.7%	8.7%
20 or more units	0.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	6.2%

Poverty & households

	Cresco	Elma
Poverty rate	11.3%	23.0%
Average household size	2.49	2.13
Mean commute (minutes)	17	25
Median year structure built	1948	1944