Monroe vs Prairie City

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

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

Monroe has the higher population (2,074 vs 1,649 in Prairie City). Monroe has the higher median household income ($81,488 vs $78,269 in Prairie City). Prairie City has the higher median home value ($177,400 vs $173,500 in Monroe).

Population, income & housing

	Monroe	Prairie City
Population	2,074	1,649
Median age	35.5 yrs	37.0 yrs
Median household income	$81,488	$78,269
Median home value	$173,500	$177,400
Median gross rent	$780	$796
Housing units	882	666
Homeownership rate	75.7%	76.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.4%	29.2%
Unemployment rate	1.9%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Monroe	Prairie City
Population	1,733 → 2,074 (+19.7%)	2,091 → 1,649 (-21.1%)
Median household income	$57,917 → $81,488 (+40.7%)	$76,827 → $78,269 (+1.9%)
Median home value	$122,700 → $173,500 (+41.4%)	$137,100 → $177,400 (+29.4%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $780 (+23.0%)	$878 → $796 (-9.3%)

Monroe

Population

1,7332,074

Median household income

$57,917$81,488

Median home value

$122,700$173,500

Median gross rent

$634$780

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)

	Monroe	Prairie City
Under 5	4.7%	7.6%
5 to 17	19.7%	24.6%
18 to 24	6.6%	4.7%
25 to 34	17.4%	9.3%
35 to 44	17.1%	18.1%
45 to 54	12.0%	13.9%
55 to 64	8.3%	7.0%
65 to 74	8.7%	9.8%
75 and over	5.5%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Monroe	Prairie City
White (non-Hispanic)	96.4%	97.2%
Black or African American	0.1%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.4%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.1%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	0.8%	0.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Monroe	Prairie City
No high school diploma	1.5%	2.8%
High school graduate	38.2%	31.8%
Some college or associate's	40.9%	36.2%
Bachelor's degree	15.4%	24.4%
Graduate or professional degree	4.0%	4.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Monroe	Prairie City
Drove alone	90.6%	73.8%
Carpooled	4.8%	3.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.9%	4.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.3%	17.8%
Other means	0.3%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Monroe	Prairie City
1-unit, detached	81.7%	77.0%
1-unit, attached	1.1%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	5.0%	13.7%
5 to 19 units	7.7%	3.5%
20 or more units	3.2%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.2%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Monroe	Prairie City
Poverty rate	4.3%	1.4%
Average household size	2.37	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	28	27
Median year structure built	1965	1970