Decorah vs Fort Atkinson

A side-by-side comparison of Decorah and Fort Atkinson: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Decorah has the higher population (7,597 vs 340 in Fort Atkinson). Fort Atkinson has the higher median household income ($72,083 vs $62,177 in Decorah). Decorah has the higher median home value ($234,600 vs $135,000 in Fort Atkinson).

Population, income & housing

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
Population	7,597	340
Median age	36.5 yrs	47.7 yrs
Median household income	$62,177	$72,083
Median home value	$234,600	$135,000
Median gross rent	$788	$1,125
Housing units	3,277	172
Homeownership rate	64.7%	83.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.1%	13.5%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	0.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
Population	7,701 → 7,597 (-1.4%)	372 → 340 (-8.6%)
Median household income	$62,336 → $62,177 (-0.3%)	$61,806 → $72,083 (+16.6%)
Median home value	$189,700 → $234,600 (+23.7%)	$125,000 → $135,000 (+8.0%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $788 (+24.3%)	$625 → $1,125 (+80.0%)

Decorah

Population

7,7017,597

Median household income

$62,336$62,177

Median home value

$189,700$234,600

Median gross rent

$634$788

Fort Atkinson

Population

372340

Median household income

$61,806$72,083

Median home value

$125,000$135,000

Median gross rent

$625$1,125

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
Under 5	3.9%	8.5%
5 to 17	9.7%	5.9%
18 to 24	24.9%	13.5%
25 to 34	10.1%	9.7%
35 to 44	9.7%	8.8%
45 to 54	10.5%	18.2%
55 to 64	8.6%	14.7%
65 to 74	11.7%	11.5%
75 and over	11.0%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
White (non-Hispanic)	93.0%	97.6%
Black or African American	0.7%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.3%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	2.4%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
No high school diploma	3.8%	6.1%
High school graduate	21.1%	42.9%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	37.6%
Bachelor's degree	28.8%	9.0%
Graduate or professional degree	17.3%	4.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
Drove alone	58.0%	88.9%
Carpooled	7.6%	5.5%
Public transit	0.4%	0.0%
Walked	23.0%	0.9%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.7%	3.7%
Other means	0.2%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
1-unit, detached	66.8%	87.2%
1-unit, attached	4.8%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	16.8%	6.4%
5 to 19 units	7.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	3.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	6.4%

Poverty & households

	Decorah	Fort Atkinson
Poverty rate	7.7%	1.8%
Average household size	1.99	2.11
Mean commute (minutes)	12	27
Median year structure built	1964	1957