Central City vs Ely

A side-by-side comparison of Central City and Ely: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Ely has the higher population (2,033 vs 1,266 in Central City). Ely has the higher median household income ($102,262 vs $81,607 in Central City). Ely has the higher median home value ($275,800 vs $166,400 in Central City).

Population, income & housing

	Central City	Ely
Population	1,266	2,033
Median age	37.2 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$81,607	$102,262
Median home value	$166,400	$275,800
Median gross rent	$715	$1,014
Housing units	573	801
Homeownership rate	79.0%	81.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.1%	35.6%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Central City	Ely
Population	1,280 → 1,266 (-1.1%)	2,227 → 2,033 (-8.7%)
Median household income	$63,068 → $81,607 (+29.4%)	$94,009 → $102,262 (+8.8%)
Median home value	$135,700 → $166,400 (+22.6%)	$216,400 → $275,800 (+27.4%)
Median gross rent	$505 → $715 (+41.6%)	$737 → $1,014 (+37.6%)

Central City

Population

1,2801,266

Median household income

$63,068$81,607

Median home value

$135,700$166,400

Median gross rent

$505$715

Ely

Population

2,2272,033

Median household income

$94,009$102,262

Median home value

$216,400$275,800

Median gross rent

$737$1,014

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Central City	Ely
Under 5	7.5%	8.7%
5 to 17	16.6%	19.4%
18 to 24	7.1%	4.1%
25 to 34	16.4%	14.1%
35 to 44	10.3%	16.7%
45 to 54	11.5%	10.6%
55 to 64	12.3%	14.2%
65 to 74	9.1%	10.6%
75 and over	9.2%	1.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Central City	Ely
White (non-Hispanic)	97.9%	96.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	1.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	0.6%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	0.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Central City	Ely
No high school diploma	2.2%	2.5%
High school graduate	37.9%	27.1%
Some college or associate's	41.8%	34.8%
Bachelor's degree	15.5%	26.6%
Graduate or professional degree	2.6%	9.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Central City	Ely
Drove alone	70.3%	84.8%
Carpooled	10.9%	6.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.9%
Walked	1.0%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	17.9%	6.2%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Central City	Ely
1-unit, detached	83.1%	79.9%
1-unit, attached	1.6%	7.1%
2 to 4 units	10.8%	6.6%
5 to 19 units	4.0%	5.5%
20 or more units	0.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Central City	Ely
Poverty rate	4.1%	4.1%
Average household size	2.44	2.57
Mean commute (minutes)	30	21
Median year structure built	1958	1998