Harlan vs Shelby

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

Harlan and Shelby 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 797 in Shelby). Shelby has the higher median household income ($60,333 vs $54,923 in Harlan). Shelby has the higher median home value ($156,300 vs $137,500 in Harlan).

Population, income & housing

	Harlan	Shelby
Population	4,896	797
Median age	48.2 yrs	34.4 yrs
Median household income	$54,923	$60,333
Median home value	$137,500	$156,300
Median gross rent	$856	$872
Housing units	2,304	422
Homeownership rate	68.3%	64.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.6%	12.4%
Unemployment rate	6.2%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Harlan	Shelby
Population	4,845 → 4,896 (+1.1%)	651 → 797 (+22.4%)
Median household income	$52,063 → $54,923 (+5.5%)	$47,045 → $60,333 (+28.2%)
Median home value	$118,400 → $137,500 (+16.1%)	$102,900 → $156,300 (+51.9%)
Median gross rent	$595 → $856 (+43.9%)	$756 → $872 (+15.3%)

Harlan

Population

4,8454,896

Median household income

$52,063$54,923

Median home value

$118,400$137,500

Median gross rent

$595$856

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)

	Harlan	Shelby
Under 5	6.0%	4.3%
5 to 17	14.3%	13.6%
18 to 24	7.8%	18.6%
25 to 34	9.0%	14.8%
35 to 44	11.1%	11.8%
45 to 54	9.3%	11.3%
55 to 64	17.8%	11.7%
65 to 74	11.3%	10.8%
75 and over	13.4%	3.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Harlan	Shelby
White (non-Hispanic)	91.1%	86.2%
Black or African American	0.9%	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	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.4%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	3.1%	11.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Harlan	Shelby
No high school diploma	7.0%	9.7%
High school graduate	36.3%	35.7%
Some college or associate's	35.1%	42.2%
Bachelor's degree	14.4%	9.1%
Graduate or professional degree	7.2%	3.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Harlan	Shelby
Drove alone	81.1%	85.7%
Carpooled	7.4%	3.9%
Public transit	0.5%	0.0%
Walked	2.6%	4.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.8%	5.7%
Other means	0.6%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Harlan	Shelby
1-unit, detached	81.2%	73.2%
1-unit, attached	1.4%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	6.2%
5 to 19 units	1.0%	7.1%
20 or more units	5.2%	12.6%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Harlan	Shelby
Poverty rate	10.9%	9.8%
Average household size	2.27	2.03
Mean commute (minutes)	14	31
Median year structure built	1956	1938