Newton vs Prairie City

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

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

Newton has the higher population (15,696 vs 1,649 in Prairie City). Prairie City has the higher median household income ($78,269 vs $56,321 in Newton). Prairie City has the higher median home value ($177,400 vs $151,600 in Newton).

Population, income & housing

	Newton	Prairie City
Population	15,696	1,649
Median age	43.2 yrs	37.0 yrs
Median household income	$56,321	$78,269
Median home value	$151,600	$177,400
Median gross rent	$828	$796
Housing units	7,472	666
Homeownership rate	65.7%	76.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.8%	29.2%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Newton	Prairie City
Population	15,164 → 15,696 (+3.5%)	2,091 → 1,649 (-21.1%)
Median household income	$48,481 → $56,321 (+16.2%)	$76,827 → $78,269 (+1.9%)
Median home value	$114,200 → $151,600 (+32.7%)	$137,100 → $177,400 (+29.4%)
Median gross rent	$736 → $828 (+12.5%)	$878 → $796 (-9.3%)

Newton

Population

15,16415,696

Median household income

$48,481$56,321

Median home value

$114,200$151,600

Median gross rent

$736$828

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)

	Newton	Prairie City
Under 5	4.6%	7.6%
5 to 17	15.2%	24.6%
18 to 24	9.0%	4.7%
25 to 34	11.5%	9.3%
35 to 44	11.5%	18.1%
45 to 54	12.4%	13.9%
55 to 64	13.0%	7.0%
65 to 74	10.9%	9.8%
75 and over	11.9%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Newton	Prairie City
White (non-Hispanic)	88.6%	97.2%
Black or African American	1.6%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.1%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.2%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	5.1%	0.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Newton	Prairie City
No high school diploma	7.7%	2.8%
High school graduate	41.8%	31.8%
Some college or associate's	31.7%	36.2%
Bachelor's degree	10.7%	24.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.1%	4.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Newton	Prairie City
Drove alone	78.4%	73.8%
Carpooled	9.0%	3.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	4.0%	4.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.4%	17.8%
Other means	1.2%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Newton	Prairie City
1-unit, detached	70.0%	77.0%
1-unit, attached	2.5%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	10.6%	13.7%
5 to 19 units	9.7%	3.5%
20 or more units	6.7%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Newton	Prairie City
Poverty rate	11.2%	1.4%
Average household size	2.28	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	22	27
Median year structure built	1964	1970