Elwood vs Wathena

A side-by-side comparison of Elwood and Wathena: population, income, housing, and more.

Elwood and Wathena are places in Kansas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Wathena has the higher population (1,463 vs 1,169 in Elwood). Wathena has the higher median household income ($84,531 vs $66,364 in Elwood). Wathena has the higher median home value ($154,800 vs $90,000 in Elwood).

Population, income & housing

	Elwood	Wathena
Population	1,169	1,463
Median age	30.1 yrs	48.7 yrs
Median household income	$66,364	$84,531
Median home value	$90,000	$154,800
Median gross rent	$883	$794
Housing units	451	659
Homeownership rate	66.1%	85.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	5.1%	19.0%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	0.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elwood	Wathena
Population	842 → 1,169 (+38.8%)	1,547 → 1,463 (-5.4%)
Median household income	$29,962 → $66,364 (+121.5%)	$54,423 → $84,531 (+55.3%)
Median home value	$69,000 → $90,000 (+30.4%)	$107,300 → $154,800 (+44.3%)
Median gross rent	$633 → $883 (+39.5%)	$710 → $794 (+11.8%)

Elwood

Population

8421,169

Median household income

$29,962$66,364

Median home value

$69,000$90,000

Median gross rent

$633$883

Wathena

Population

1,5471,463

Median household income

$54,423$84,531

Median home value

$107,300$154,800

Median gross rent

$710$794

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elwood	Wathena
Under 5	9.4%	3.1%
5 to 17	17.3%	15.2%
18 to 24	13.0%	3.8%
25 to 34	16.3%	10.7%
35 to 44	12.9%	13.1%
45 to 54	2.1%	19.1%
55 to 64	17.7%	21.6%
65 to 74	8.0%	7.7%
75 and over	3.3%	5.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elwood	Wathena
White (non-Hispanic)	79.3%	95.6%
Black or African American	1.4%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.7%	4.0%
Hispanic or Latino	11.1%	0.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elwood	Wathena
No high school diploma	11.9%	2.1%
High school graduate	54.5%	37.4%
Some college or associate's	28.5%	41.5%
Bachelor's degree	2.1%	11.2%
Graduate or professional degree	3.0%	7.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elwood	Wathena
Drove alone	77.7%	87.4%
Carpooled	13.7%	7.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.9%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.7%	4.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elwood	Wathena
1-unit, detached	49.9%	88.8%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	12.2%	5.3%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	2.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	37.9%	2.7%

Poverty & households

	Elwood	Wathena
Poverty rate	12.5%	7.4%
Average household size	3.09	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	14	20
Median year structure built	1989	1973