Decorah vs Ossian

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

Decorah and Ossian 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 833 in Ossian). Decorah has the higher median household income ($62,177 vs $58,929 in Ossian). Decorah has the higher median home value ($234,600 vs $152,700 in Ossian).

Population, income & housing

	Decorah	Ossian
Population	7,597	833
Median age	36.5 yrs	39.8 yrs
Median household income	$62,177	$58,929
Median home value	$234,600	$152,700
Median gross rent	$788	$707
Housing units	3,277	416
Homeownership rate	64.7%	78.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.1%	18.0%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Decorah	Ossian
Population	7,701 → 7,597 (-1.4%)	808 → 833 (+3.1%)
Median household income	$62,336 → $62,177 (-0.3%)	$55,438 → $58,929 (+6.3%)
Median home value	$189,700 → $234,600 (+23.7%)	$110,000 → $152,700 (+38.8%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $788 (+24.3%)	$550 → $707 (+28.5%)

Decorah

Population

7,7017,597

Median household income

$62,336$62,177

Median home value

$189,700$234,600

Median gross rent

$634$788

Ossian

Population

808833

Median household income

$55,438$58,929

Median home value

$110,000$152,700

Median gross rent

$550$707

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Decorah	Ossian
Under 5	3.9%	4.1%
5 to 17	9.7%	16.7%
18 to 24	24.9%	7.8%
25 to 34	10.1%	12.8%
35 to 44	9.7%	14.2%
45 to 54	10.5%	13.0%
55 to 64	8.6%	9.7%
65 to 74	11.7%	6.4%
75 and over	11.0%	15.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Decorah	Ossian
White (non-Hispanic)	93.0%	90.0%
Black or African American	0.7%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.3%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	2.4%	7.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Decorah	Ossian
No high school diploma	3.8%	10.6%
High school graduate	21.1%	37.1%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	34.3%
Bachelor's degree	28.8%	9.7%
Graduate or professional degree	17.3%	8.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Decorah	Ossian
Drove alone	58.0%	80.1%
Carpooled	7.6%	4.6%
Public transit	0.4%	0.0%
Walked	23.0%	7.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.7%	5.9%
Other means	0.2%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Decorah	Ossian
1-unit, detached	66.8%	91.6%
1-unit, attached	4.8%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	16.8%	6.3%
5 to 19 units	7.8%	1.7%
20 or more units	3.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Decorah	Ossian
Poverty rate	7.7%	9.1%
Average household size	1.99	2.01
Mean commute (minutes)	12	20
Median year structure built	1964	1938