Fort Ripley vs Merrifield

A side-by-side comparison of Fort Ripley and Merrifield: population, income, housing, and more.

Fort Ripley and Merrifield are places in Minnesota. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Merrifield has the higher population (131 vs 63 in Fort Ripley). Merrifield has the higher median home value ($229,700 vs $218,800 in Fort Ripley). Since 2019, Merrifield's population has grown faster (+79.5% vs +40.0%).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
Population	63	131
Median age	59.5 yrs	55.6 yrs
Median household income	$53,542	—
Median home value	$218,800	$229,700
Housing units	31	86
Homeownership rate	90.3%	100.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	12.7%	39.1%
Unemployment rate	18.2%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
Population	45 → 63 (+40.0%)	73 → 131 (+79.5%)
Median household income	$61,875 → $53,542 (-13.5%)	—
Median home value	$178,100 → $218,800 (+22.9%)	$153,600 → $229,700 (+49.5%)

Fort Ripley

Population

4563

Median household income

$61,875$53,542

Median home value

$178,100$218,800

Merrifield

Population

73131

Median home value

$153,600$229,700

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
Under 5	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 17	11.1%	0.0%
18 to 24	1.6%	12.2%
25 to 34	0.0%	0.0%
35 to 44	14.3%	16.0%
45 to 54	12.7%	14.5%
55 to 64	17.5%	46.6%
65 to 74	34.9%	6.9%
75 and over	7.9%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
White (non-Hispanic)	96.8%	100.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.0%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	3.2%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
No high school diploma	1.8%	0.0%
High school graduate	60.0%	8.7%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	52.2%
Bachelor's degree	7.3%	4.3%
Graduate or professional degree	5.5%	34.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
Drove alone	77.8%	100.0%
Carpooled	0.0%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	11.1%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.1%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
1-unit, detached	100.0%	94.2%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	5.8%

Poverty & households

	Fort Ripley	Merrifield
Poverty rate	4.8%	9.2%
Average household size	2.03	1.62
Mean commute (minutes)	20	—
Median year structure built	1985	1975