Eldon vs Ottumwa

A side-by-side comparison of Eldon and Ottumwa: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Ottumwa has the higher population (25,352 vs 816 in Eldon). Ottumwa has the higher median household income ($56,994 vs $52,813 in Eldon). Ottumwa has the higher median home value ($92,400 vs $57,600 in Eldon).

Population, income & housing

	Eldon	Ottumwa
Population	816	25,352
Median age	41.3 yrs	37.4 yrs
Median household income	$52,813	$56,994
Median home value	$57,600	$92,400
Median gross rent	$650	$956
Housing units	382	11,525
Homeownership rate	75.8%	61.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	12.8%	20.1%
Unemployment rate	7.5%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Eldon	Ottumwa
Population	990 → 816 (-17.6%)	24,545 → 25,352 (+3.3%)
Median household income	$43,125 → $52,813 (+22.5%)	$41,722 → $56,994 (+36.6%)
Median home value	$57,500 → $57,600 (+0.2%)	$74,100 → $92,400 (+24.7%)
Median gross rent	$571 → $650 (+13.8%)	$727 → $956 (+31.5%)

Eldon

Population

990816

Median household income

$43,125$52,813

Median home value

$57,500$57,600

Median gross rent

$571$650

Ottumwa

Population

24,54525,352

Median household income

$41,722$56,994

Median home value

$74,100$92,400

Median gross rent

$727$956

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Eldon	Ottumwa
Under 5	6.0%	6.4%
5 to 17	21.7%	17.4%
18 to 24	4.2%	9.2%
25 to 34	9.2%	13.8%
35 to 44	17.0%	11.0%
45 to 54	13.8%	12.8%
55 to 64	12.1%	13.0%
65 to 74	11.9%	9.5%
75 and over	4.0%	6.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Eldon	Ottumwa
White (non-Hispanic)	91.9%	71.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	4.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.3%	1.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	2.7%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.1%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	16.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Eldon	Ottumwa
No high school diploma	10.8%	14.4%
High school graduate	50.4%	36.6%
Some college or associate's	26.1%	29.0%
Bachelor's degree	9.0%	11.8%
Graduate or professional degree	3.8%	8.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Eldon	Ottumwa
Drove alone	71.4%	77.9%
Carpooled	18.1%	14.6%
Public transit	0.9%	0.5%
Walked	3.0%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.8%	3.7%
Other means	1.8%	2.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Eldon	Ottumwa
1-unit, detached	74.9%	74.3%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	2.5%
2 to 4 units	15.4%	6.1%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	8.9%
20 or more units	0.0%	5.3%
Mobile home & other	9.7%	2.8%

Poverty & households

	Eldon	Ottumwa
Poverty rate	21.1%	18.9%
Average household size	2.50	2.41
Mean commute (minutes)	26	17
Median year structure built	1943	1955