Central City vs Palo

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

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

Central City has the higher population (1,266 vs 1,173 in Palo). Palo has the higher median household income ($103,646 vs $81,607 in Central City). Palo has the higher median home value ($274,200 vs $166,400 in Central City).

Population, income & housing

	Central City	Palo
Population	1,266	1,173
Median age	37.2 yrs	32.7 yrs
Median household income	$81,607	$103,646
Median home value	$166,400	$274,200
Median gross rent	$715	$1,063
Housing units	573	409
Homeownership rate	79.0%	95.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.1%	27.5%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Central City	Palo
Population	1,280 → 1,266 (-1.1%)	1,044 → 1,173 (+12.4%)
Median household income	$63,068 → $81,607 (+29.4%)	$76,944 → $103,646 (+34.7%)
Median home value	$135,700 → $166,400 (+22.6%)	$191,900 → $274,200 (+42.9%)
Median gross rent	$505 → $715 (+41.6%)	$1,006 → $1,063 (+5.7%)

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

Palo

Population

1,0441,173

Median household income

$76,944$103,646

Median home value

$191,900$274,200

Median gross rent

$1,006$1,063

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Central City	Palo
Under 5	7.5%	10.7%
5 to 17	16.6%	22.9%
18 to 24	7.1%	3.6%
25 to 34	16.4%	16.4%
35 to 44	10.3%	16.6%
45 to 54	11.5%	14.8%
55 to 64	12.3%	6.9%
65 to 74	9.1%	4.4%
75 and over	9.2%	3.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Central City	Palo
White (non-Hispanic)	97.9%	93.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.6%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	1.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Central City	Palo
No high school diploma	2.2%	1.4%
High school graduate	37.9%	35.5%
Some college or associate's	41.8%	35.5%
Bachelor's degree	15.5%	21.8%
Graduate or professional degree	2.6%	5.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Central City	Palo
Drove alone	70.3%	79.6%
Carpooled	10.9%	5.1%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.0%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	17.9%	13.6%
Other means	0.0%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Central City	Palo
1-unit, detached	83.1%	97.1%
1-unit, attached	1.6%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	10.8%	1.5%
5 to 19 units	4.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Central City	Palo
Poverty rate	4.1%	3.3%
Average household size	2.44	2.93
Mean commute (minutes)	30	27
Median year structure built	1958	2005