Altoona vs Urbandale

A side-by-side comparison of Altoona and Urbandale: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Urbandale has the higher population (46,026 vs 20,592 in Altoona). Urbandale has the higher median household income ($113,086 vs $87,123 in Altoona). Urbandale has the higher median home value ($318,800 vs $257,300 in Altoona).

Population, income & housing

	Altoona	Urbandale
Population	20,592	46,026
Median age	35.5 yrs	38.7 yrs
Median household income	$87,123	$113,086
Median home value	$257,300	$318,800
Median gross rent	$1,203	$1,176
Housing units	8,187	17,907
Homeownership rate	68.3%	77.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.6%	51.4%
Unemployment rate	6.7%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Altoona	Urbandale
Population	18,458 → 20,592 (+11.6%)	43,441 → 46,026 (+6.0%)
Median household income	$77,581 → $87,123 (+12.3%)	$90,858 → $113,086 (+24.5%)
Median home value	$196,600 → $257,300 (+30.9%)	$237,500 → $318,800 (+34.2%)
Median gross rent	$931 → $1,203 (+29.2%)	$935 → $1,176 (+25.8%)

Altoona

Population

18,45820,592

Median household income

$77,581$87,123

Median home value

$196,600$257,300

Median gross rent

$931$1,203

Urbandale

Population

43,44146,026

Median household income

$90,858$113,086

Median home value

$237,500$318,800

Median gross rent

$935$1,176

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Altoona	Urbandale
Under 5	6.4%	6.0%
5 to 17	19.9%	20.8%
18 to 24	8.3%	5.8%
25 to 34	14.8%	12.0%
35 to 44	13.6%	15.2%
45 to 54	11.0%	13.3%
55 to 64	11.5%	12.6%
65 to 74	9.3%	9.1%
75 and over	5.2%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Altoona	Urbandale
White (non-Hispanic)	84.4%	79.8%
Black or African American	3.5%	5.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.5%	5.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.4%
Two or more races	3.3%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	6.9%	6.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Altoona	Urbandale
No high school diploma	4.4%	5.1%
High school graduate	30.9%	18.0%
Some college or associate's	32.1%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree	24.6%	33.9%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	17.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Altoona	Urbandale
Drove alone	79.6%	74.0%
Carpooled	4.9%	7.2%
Public transit	0.5%	0.4%
Walked	0.0%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.7%	15.9%
Other means	2.1%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Altoona	Urbandale
1-unit, detached	60.8%	68.4%
1-unit, attached	10.8%	9.2%
2 to 4 units	2.9%	2.7%
5 to 19 units	8.1%	8.5%
20 or more units	13.7%	10.3%
Mobile home & other	3.7%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Altoona	Urbandale
Poverty rate	7.2%	6.3%
Average household size	2.60	2.68
Mean commute (minutes)	23	18
Median year structure built	1998	1992