Clay Center vs Fairfield

A side-by-side comparison of Clay Center and Fairfield: population, income, housing, and more.

Clay Center and Fairfield are places in Nebraska. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Clay Center has the higher population (750 vs 339 in Fairfield). Clay Center has the higher median household income ($75,833 vs $59,500 in Fairfield). Clay Center has the higher median home value ($148,300 vs $122,500 in Fairfield).

Population, income & housing

	Clay Center	Fairfield
Population	750	339
Median age	39.7 yrs	47.9 yrs
Median household income	$75,833	$59,500
Median home value	$148,300	$122,500
Median gross rent	$620	$713
Housing units	346	180
Homeownership rate	82.1%	75.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.6%	19.0%
Unemployment rate	1.0%	2.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay Center	Fairfield
Population	801 → 750 (-6.4%)	374 → 339 (-9.4%)
Median household income	$57,750 → $75,833 (+31.3%)	$40,000 → $59,500 (+48.8%)
Median home value	$84,800 → $148,300 (+74.9%)	$77,500 → $122,500 (+58.1%)
Median gross rent	$515 → $620 (+20.4%)	$619 → $713 (+15.2%)

Clay Center

Population

801750

Median household income

$57,750$75,833

Median home value

$84,800$148,300

Median gross rent

$515$620

Fairfield

Population

374339

Median household income

$40,000$59,500

Median home value

$77,500$122,500

Median gross rent

$619$713

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay Center	Fairfield
Under 5	9.9%	7.4%
5 to 17	11.6%	10.6%
18 to 24	8.1%	5.9%
25 to 34	14.8%	14.5%
35 to 44	9.7%	8.0%
45 to 54	10.7%	12.1%
55 to 64	12.0%	13.3%
65 to 74	15.6%	18.0%
75 and over	7.6%	10.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay Center	Fairfield
White (non-Hispanic)	88.8%	96.5%
Black or African American	1.3%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.9%	0.0%
Asian	0.1%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.3%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	5.5%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay Center	Fairfield
No high school diploma	6.3%	3.5%
High school graduate	33.0%	35.3%
Some college or associate's	40.2%	42.2%
Bachelor's degree	13.1%	14.7%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	4.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay Center	Fairfield
Drove alone	85.5%	69.1%
Carpooled	3.8%	17.5%
Public transit	1.5%	0.5%
Walked	4.0%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.3%	9.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay Center	Fairfield
1-unit, detached	88.4%	91.1%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	6.9%	2.8%
5 to 19 units	0.9%	5.0%
20 or more units	0.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.9%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Clay Center	Fairfield
Poverty rate	2.9%	10.9%
Average household size	2.34	2.17
Mean commute (minutes)	21	24
Median year structure built	1959	1958