Elk Horn vs Shelby

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

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

Shelby has the higher population (797 vs 623 in Elk Horn). Shelby has the higher median household income ($60,333 vs $60,000 in Elk Horn). Shelby has the higher median home value ($156,300 vs $125,300 in Elk Horn).

Population, income & housing

	Elk Horn	Shelby
Population	623	797
Median age	46.3 yrs	34.4 yrs
Median household income	$60,000	$60,333
Median home value	$125,300	$156,300
Median gross rent	$643	$872
Housing units	286	422
Homeownership rate	83.7%	64.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.3%	12.4%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elk Horn	Shelby
Population	536 → 623 (+16.2%)	651 → 797 (+22.4%)
Median household income	$57,500 → $60,000 (+4.3%)	$47,045 → $60,333 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$103,100 → $125,300 (+21.5%)	$102,900 → $156,300 (+51.9%)
Median gross rent	$534 → $643 (+20.4%)	$756 → $872 (+15.3%)

Elk Horn

Population

536623

Median household income

$57,500$60,000

Median home value

$103,100$125,300

Median gross rent

$534$643

Shelby

Population

651797

Median household income

$47,045$60,333

Median home value

$102,900$156,300

Median gross rent

$756$872

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elk Horn	Shelby
Under 5	4.7%	4.3%
5 to 17	16.4%	13.6%
18 to 24	9.0%	18.6%
25 to 34	7.5%	14.8%
35 to 44	11.2%	11.8%
45 to 54	9.1%	11.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	11.7%
65 to 74	9.5%	10.8%
75 and over	20.4%	3.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elk Horn	Shelby
White (non-Hispanic)	93.6%	86.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
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%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.6%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	1.4%	11.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elk Horn	Shelby
No high school diploma	6.4%	9.7%
High school graduate	42.9%	35.7%
Some college or associate's	26.4%	42.2%
Bachelor's degree	17.2%	9.1%
Graduate or professional degree	7.1%	3.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elk Horn	Shelby
Drove alone	75.1%	85.7%
Carpooled	0.8%	3.9%
Public transit	0.8%	0.0%
Walked	10.3%	4.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	13.0%	5.7%
Other means	0.0%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elk Horn	Shelby
1-unit, detached	87.8%	73.2%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	7.7%	6.2%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	7.1%
20 or more units	0.0%	12.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Elk Horn	Shelby
Poverty rate	15.0%	9.8%
Average household size	2.22	2.03
Mean commute (minutes)	24	31
Median year structure built	1938	1938