College Springs vs Essex

A side-by-side comparison of College Springs and Essex: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Essex has the higher population (875 vs 217 in College Springs). College Springs has the higher median household income ($70,242 vs $57,344 in Essex). Essex has the higher median home value ($87,700 vs $73,800 in College Springs).

Population, income & housing

	College Springs	Essex
Population	217	875
Median age	47.5 yrs	48.0 yrs
Median household income	$70,242	$57,344
Median home value	$73,800	$87,700
Median gross rent	—	$681
Housing units	115	416
Homeownership rate	96.4%	78.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.3%	16.3%
Unemployment rate	2.2%	3.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	College Springs	Essex
Population	249 → 217 (-12.9%)	777 → 875 (+12.6%)
Median household income	$36,250 → $70,242 (+93.8%)	$52,454 → $57,344 (+9.3%)
Median home value	$55,600 → $73,800 (+32.7%)	$73,700 → $87,700 (+19.0%)
Median gross rent	$495 → $742 (+49.9%)	$663 → $681 (+2.7%)

College Springs

Population

249217

Median household income

$36,250$70,242

Median home value

$55,600$73,800

Median gross rent

$495$742

Essex

Population

777875

Median household income

$52,454$57,344

Median home value

$73,700$87,700

Median gross rent

$663$681

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	College Springs	Essex
Under 5	5.1%	3.8%
5 to 17	13.4%	15.3%
18 to 24	1.4%	8.1%
25 to 34	9.7%	10.2%
35 to 44	17.1%	7.4%
45 to 54	20.7%	16.1%
55 to 64	16.1%	15.3%
65 to 74	8.8%	11.5%
75 and over	7.8%	12.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	College Springs	Essex
White (non-Hispanic)	97.2%	85.1%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	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	2.8%	0.9%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	13.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	College Springs	Essex
No high school diploma	2.9%	8.5%
High school graduate	49.4%	39.2%
Some college or associate's	26.4%	35.9%
Bachelor's degree	17.2%	10.7%
Graduate or professional degree	4.0%	5.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	College Springs	Essex
Drove alone	83.3%	90.3%
Carpooled	2.4%	5.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	8.7%	2.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.0%
Worked from home	5.6%	0.7%
Other means	0.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	College Springs	Essex
1-unit, detached	98.3%	83.7%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	3.1%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	8.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	3.6%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.7%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	College Springs	Essex
Poverty rate	12.4%	9.6%
Average household size	1.97	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	30	20
Median year structure built	1938	1951