Johnston vs Urbandale

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

Johnston 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 24,196 in Johnston). Urbandale has the higher median household income ($113,086 vs $103,430 in Johnston). Johnston has the higher median home value ($346,200 vs $318,800 in Urbandale).

Population, income & housing

	Johnston	Urbandale
Population	24,196	46,026
Median age	38.4 yrs	38.7 yrs
Median household income	$103,430	$113,086
Median home value	$346,200	$318,800
Median gross rent	$1,288	$1,176
Housing units	9,868	17,907
Homeownership rate	72.3%	77.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.9%	51.4%
Unemployment rate	1.8%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Johnston	Urbandale
Population	21,406 → 24,196 (+13.0%)	43,441 → 46,026 (+6.0%)
Median household income	$96,948 → $103,430 (+6.7%)	$90,858 → $113,086 (+24.5%)
Median home value	$268,300 → $346,200 (+29.0%)	$237,500 → $318,800 (+34.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,146 → $1,288 (+12.4%)	$935 → $1,176 (+25.8%)

Johnston

Population

21,40624,196

Median household income

$96,948$103,430

Median home value

$268,300$346,200

Median gross rent

$1,146$1,288

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)

	Johnston	Urbandale
Under 5	6.0%	6.0%
5 to 17	23.0%	20.8%
18 to 24	6.2%	5.8%
25 to 34	10.2%	12.0%
35 to 44	14.5%	15.2%
45 to 54	14.8%	13.3%
55 to 64	9.2%	12.6%
65 to 74	9.7%	9.1%
75 and over	6.4%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Johnston	Urbandale
White (non-Hispanic)	79.3%	79.8%
Black or African American	8.6%	5.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	7.2%	5.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.7%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	2.1%	6.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Johnston	Urbandale
No high school diploma	2.5%	5.1%
High school graduate	14.5%	18.0%
Some college or associate's	25.1%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree	36.7%	33.9%
Graduate or professional degree	21.1%	17.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Johnston	Urbandale
Drove alone	79.2%	74.0%
Carpooled	4.7%	7.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.4%
Walked	1.0%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	15.9%
Other means	0.4%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Johnston	Urbandale
1-unit, detached	58.7%	68.4%
1-unit, attached	15.0%	9.2%
2 to 4 units	1.5%	2.7%
5 to 19 units	9.9%	8.5%
20 or more units	15.0%	10.3%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Johnston	Urbandale
Poverty rate	7.6%	6.3%
Average household size	2.51	2.68
Mean commute (minutes)	19	18
Median year structure built	2004	1992