Elk Horn vs Harlan

A side-by-side comparison of Elk Horn and Harlan: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Harlan has the higher population (4,896 vs 623 in Elk Horn). Elk Horn has the higher median household income ($60,000 vs $54,923 in Harlan). Harlan has the higher median home value ($137,500 vs $125,300 in Elk Horn).

Population, income & housing

	Elk Horn	Harlan
Population	623	4,896
Median age	46.3 yrs	48.2 yrs
Median household income	$60,000	$54,923
Median home value	$125,300	$137,500
Median gross rent	$643	$856
Housing units	286	2,304
Homeownership rate	83.7%	68.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.3%	21.6%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	6.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elk Horn	Harlan
Population	536 → 623 (+16.2%)	4,845 → 4,896 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$57,500 → $60,000 (+4.3%)	$52,063 → $54,923 (+5.5%)
Median home value	$103,100 → $125,300 (+21.5%)	$118,400 → $137,500 (+16.1%)
Median gross rent	$534 → $643 (+20.4%)	$595 → $856 (+43.9%)

Elk Horn

Population

536623

Median household income

$57,500$60,000

Median home value

$103,100$125,300

Median gross rent

$534$643

Harlan

Population

4,8454,896

Median household income

$52,063$54,923

Median home value

$118,400$137,500

Median gross rent

$595$856

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elk Horn	Harlan
Under 5	4.7%	6.0%
5 to 17	16.4%	14.3%
18 to 24	9.0%	7.8%
25 to 34	7.5%	9.0%
35 to 44	11.2%	11.1%
45 to 54	9.1%	9.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	17.8%
65 to 74	9.5%	11.3%
75 and over	20.4%	13.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elk Horn	Harlan
White (non-Hispanic)	93.6%	91.1%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.9%	0.5%
Two or more races	1.6%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	1.4%	3.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elk Horn	Harlan
No high school diploma	6.4%	7.0%
High school graduate	42.9%	36.3%
Some college or associate's	26.4%	35.1%
Bachelor's degree	17.2%	14.4%
Graduate or professional degree	7.1%	7.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elk Horn	Harlan
Drove alone	75.1%	81.1%
Carpooled	0.8%	7.4%
Public transit	0.8%	0.5%
Walked	10.3%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	13.0%	7.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elk Horn	Harlan
1-unit, detached	87.8%	81.2%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	7.7%	7.3%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	1.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	5.2%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Elk Horn	Harlan
Poverty rate	15.0%	10.9%
Average household size	2.22	2.27
Mean commute (minutes)	24	14
Median year structure built	1938	1956