Broken Bow vs Merna

A side-by-side comparison of Broken Bow and Merna: population, income, housing, and more.

Broken Bow and Merna are places in Nebraska. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Broken Bow has the higher population (3,524 vs 380 in Merna). Merna has the higher median household income ($73,500 vs $56,438 in Broken Bow). Broken Bow has the higher median home value ($124,600 vs $107,500 in Merna).

Population, income & housing

	Broken Bow	Merna
Population	3,524	380
Median age	41.3 yrs	33.3 yrs
Median household income	$56,438	$73,500
Median home value	$124,600	$107,500
Median gross rent	$826	$1,083
Housing units	1,795	166
Homeownership rate	56.7%	79.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.4%	20.1%
Unemployment rate	5.8%	1.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Broken Bow	Merna
Population	3,517 → 3,524 (+0.2%)	353 → 380 (+7.6%)
Median household income	$42,890 → $56,438 (+31.6%)	$45,417 → $73,500 (+61.8%)
Median home value	$106,100 → $124,600 (+17.4%)	$75,000 → $107,500 (+43.3%)
Median gross rent	$638 → $826 (+29.5%)	$821 → $1,083 (+31.9%)

Broken Bow

Population

3,5173,524

Median household income

$42,890$56,438

Median home value

$106,100$124,600

Median gross rent

$638$826

Merna

Population

353380

Median household income

$45,417$73,500

Median home value

$75,000$107,500

Median gross rent

$821$1,083

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Broken Bow	Merna
Under 5	3.8%	9.2%
5 to 17	24.0%	22.4%
18 to 24	5.6%	4.2%
25 to 34	10.9%	15.8%
35 to 44	14.4%	12.4%
45 to 54	9.4%	11.8%
55 to 64	12.9%	13.2%
65 to 74	7.0%	5.5%
75 and over	12.1%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Broken Bow	Merna
White (non-Hispanic)	88.4%	88.9%
Black or African American	1.3%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	5.0%
Two or more races	3.6%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	5.9%	4.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Broken Bow	Merna
No high school diploma	7.7%	5.3%
High school graduate	37.0%	38.9%
Some college or associate's	34.9%	35.7%
Bachelor's degree	16.0%	13.9%
Graduate or professional degree	4.3%	6.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Broken Bow	Merna
Drove alone	81.7%	73.0%
Carpooled	10.5%	12.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.5%	0.0%
Bicycle	1.0%	5.1%
Worked from home	6.3%	4.6%
Other means	0.0%	4.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Broken Bow	Merna
1-unit, detached	75.5%	86.7%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	7.1%	1.8%
5 to 19 units	6.7%	2.4%
20 or more units	8.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	8.4%

Poverty & households

	Broken Bow	Merna
Poverty rate	14.6%	8.5%
Average household size	2.29	2.71
Mean commute (minutes)	11	14
Median year structure built	1964	1958