Harper vs Thornburg

A side-by-side comparison of Harper and Thornburg: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Harper has the higher population (130 vs 43 in Thornburg). Harper has the higher median household income ($70,417 vs $39,821 in Thornburg). Since 2019, Harper's population has grown faster (+51.2% vs -10.4%).

Population, income & housing

	Harper	Thornburg
Population	130	43
Median age	22.3 yrs	60.5 yrs
Median household income	$70,417	$39,821
Median home value	$95,000	—
Median gross rent	$850	—
Housing units	33	21
Homeownership rate	87.9%	100.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.7%	27.5%
Unemployment rate	9.0%	25.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Harper	Thornburg
Population	86 → 130 (+51.2%)	48 → 43 (-10.4%)
Median household income	$71,250 → $70,417 (-1.2%)	$45,417 → $39,821 (-12.3%)
Median home value	$68,000 → $95,000 (+39.7%)	$35,000 → $22,500 (-35.7%)
Median gross rent	$731 → $850 (+16.3%)	—

Harper

Population

86130

Median household income

$71,250$70,417

Median home value

$68,000$95,000

Median gross rent

$731$850

Thornburg

Population

4843

Median household income

$45,417$39,821

Median home value

$35,000$22,500

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Harper	Thornburg
Under 5	6.2%	0.0%
5 to 17	32.3%	4.7%
18 to 24	15.4%	2.3%
25 to 34	6.9%	0.0%
35 to 44	20.0%	7.0%
45 to 54	6.2%	20.9%
55 to 64	2.3%	23.3%
65 to 74	9.2%	37.2%
75 and over	1.5%	4.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Harper	Thornburg
White (non-Hispanic)	90.8%	83.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	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	5.4%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	3.1%	16.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Harper	Thornburg
No high school diploma	13.3%	2.5%
High school graduate	38.3%	55.0%
Some college or associate's	26.7%	15.0%
Bachelor's degree	18.3%	22.5%
Graduate or professional degree	3.3%	5.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Harper	Thornburg
Drove alone	90.9%	80.0%
Carpooled	9.1%	20.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Harper	Thornburg
1-unit, detached	100.0%	95.2%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	4.8%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Harper	Thornburg
Poverty rate	7.0%	14.0%
Average household size	3.94	2.05
Mean commute (minutes)	19	36
Median year structure built	1938	1938