Baxter vs Prairie City

A side-by-side comparison of Baxter and Prairie City: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Prairie City has the higher population (1,649 vs 1,251 in Baxter). Prairie City has the higher median household income ($78,269 vs $60,625 in Baxter). Prairie City has the higher median home value ($177,400 vs $162,300 in Baxter).

Population, income & housing

	Baxter	Prairie City
Population	1,251	1,649
Median age	33.0 yrs	37.0 yrs
Median household income	$60,625	$78,269
Median home value	$162,300	$177,400
Median gross rent	$693	$796
Housing units	480	666
Homeownership rate	75.2%	76.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.1%	29.2%
Unemployment rate	1.8%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Baxter	Prairie City
Population	1,004 → 1,251 (+24.6%)	2,091 → 1,649 (-21.1%)
Median household income	$59,276 → $60,625 (+2.3%)	$76,827 → $78,269 (+1.9%)
Median home value	$127,800 → $162,300 (+27.0%)	$137,100 → $177,400 (+29.4%)
Median gross rent	$693 → $693 (+0.0%)	$878 → $796 (-9.3%)

Baxter

Population

1,0041,251

Median household income

$59,276$60,625

Median home value

$127,800$162,300

Median gross rent

$693$693

Prairie City

Population

2,0911,649

Median household income

$76,827$78,269

Median home value

$137,100$177,400

Median gross rent

$878$796

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Baxter	Prairie City
Under 5	10.1%	7.6%
5 to 17	23.3%	24.6%
18 to 24	6.1%	4.7%
25 to 34	13.3%	9.3%
35 to 44	11.8%	18.1%
45 to 54	7.8%	13.9%
55 to 64	8.5%	7.0%
65 to 74	12.0%	9.8%
75 and over	7.2%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Baxter	Prairie City
White (non-Hispanic)	99.4%	97.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.5%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	0.2%	0.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Baxter	Prairie City
No high school diploma	8.4%	2.8%
High school graduate	27.0%	31.8%
Some college or associate's	44.5%	36.2%
Bachelor's degree	14.4%	24.4%
Graduate or professional degree	5.7%	4.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Baxter	Prairie City
Drove alone	83.9%	73.8%
Carpooled	4.0%	3.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.3%	4.0%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.9%	17.8%
Other means	0.5%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Baxter	Prairie City
1-unit, detached	80.0%	77.0%
1-unit, attached	0.8%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	15.6%	13.7%
5 to 19 units	2.5%	3.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Baxter	Prairie City
Poverty rate	15.3%	1.4%
Average household size	2.65	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	27	27
Median year structure built	1969	1970