Forest City vs Thompson

A side-by-side comparison of Forest City and Thompson: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Forest City has the higher population (4,280 vs 448 in Thompson). Forest City has the higher median household income ($62,917 vs $49,375 in Thompson). Forest City has the higher median home value ($136,400 vs $99,600 in Thompson).

Population, income & housing

	Forest City	Thompson
Population	4,280	448
Median age	32.0 yrs	60.3 yrs
Median household income	$62,917	$49,375
Median home value	$136,400	$99,600
Median gross rent	$719	$696
Housing units	1,780	311
Homeownership rate	72.3%	76.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	34.0%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest City	Thompson
Population	3,928 → 4,280 (+9.0%)	382 → 448 (+17.3%)
Median household income	$49,022 → $62,917 (+28.3%)	$44,500 → $49,375 (+11.0%)
Median home value	$95,300 → $136,400 (+43.1%)	$68,300 → $99,600 (+45.8%)
Median gross rent	$579 → $719 (+24.2%)	$689 → $696 (+1.0%)

Forest City

Population

3,9284,280

Median household income

$49,022$62,917

Median home value

$95,300$136,400

Median gross rent

$579$719

Thompson

Population

382448

Median household income

$44,500$49,375

Median home value

$68,300$99,600

Median gross rent

$689$696

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest City	Thompson
Under 5	5.1%	1.8%
5 to 17	19.4%	9.4%
18 to 24	17.3%	4.7%
25 to 34	10.7%	5.1%
35 to 44	16.5%	10.3%
45 to 54	7.4%	12.1%
55 to 64	8.5%	17.0%
65 to 74	10.0%	25.9%
75 and over	5.1%	13.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest City	Thompson
White (non-Hispanic)	86.4%	92.0%
Black or African American	1.3%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	7.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.9%	1.1%
Hispanic or Latino	3.3%	6.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest City	Thompson
No high school diploma	6.7%	11.7%
High school graduate	25.3%	31.8%
Some college or associate's	42.0%	22.5%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	29.2%
Graduate or professional degree	10.3%	4.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest City	Thompson
Drove alone	78.7%	80.1%
Carpooled	9.6%	2.5%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	3.7%	4.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.0%	8.0%
Other means	2.0%	5.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest City	Thompson
1-unit, detached	74.0%	91.0%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	8.7%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	6.3%	7.7%
20 or more units	4.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	5.3%	1.3%

Poverty & households

	Forest City	Thompson
Poverty rate	9.4%	8.1%
Average household size	2.41	1.61
Mean commute (minutes)	13	18
Median year structure built	1968	1958