Mason City vs Merna

A side-by-side comparison of Mason City and Merna: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Merna has the higher population (380 vs 175 in Mason City). Merna has the higher median household income ($73,500 vs $49,917 in Mason City). Mason City has the higher median home value ($175,700 vs $107,500 in Merna).

Population, income & housing

	Mason City	Merna
Population	175	380
Median age	27.8 yrs	33.3 yrs
Median household income	$49,917	$73,500
Median home value	$175,700	$107,500
Median gross rent	$778	$1,083
Housing units	110	166
Homeownership rate	79.2%	79.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	44.4%	20.1%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	1.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mason City	Merna
Population	198 → 175 (-11.6%)	353 → 380 (+7.6%)
Median household income	$35,341 → $49,917 (+41.2%)	$45,417 → $73,500 (+61.8%)
Median home value	$43,200 → $175,700 (+306.7%)	$75,000 → $107,500 (+43.3%)
Median gross rent	$569 → $778 (+36.7%)	$821 → $1,083 (+31.9%)

Mason City

Population

198175

Median household income

$35,341$49,917

Median home value

$43,200$175,700

Median gross rent

$569$778

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)

	Mason City	Merna
Under 5	10.3%	9.2%
5 to 17	0.6%	22.4%
18 to 24	17.1%	4.2%
25 to 34	26.9%	15.8%
35 to 44	4.0%	12.4%
45 to 54	8.0%	11.8%
55 to 64	11.4%	13.2%
65 to 74	19.4%	5.5%
75 and over	2.3%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mason City	Merna
White (non-Hispanic)	97.7%	88.9%
Black or African American	0.6%	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%	5.0%
Two or more races	1.7%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	4.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mason City	Merna
No high school diploma	3.2%	5.3%
High school graduate	27.8%	38.9%
Some college or associate's	24.6%	35.7%
Bachelor's degree	34.1%	13.9%
Graduate or professional degree	10.3%	6.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mason City	Merna
Drove alone	98.8%	73.0%
Carpooled	0.0%	12.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	5.1%
Worked from home	1.3%	4.6%
Other means	0.0%	4.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mason City	Merna
1-unit, detached	97.3%	86.7%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	1.8%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	2.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.9%	8.4%

Poverty & households

	Mason City	Merna
Poverty rate	12.6%	8.5%
Average household size	2.27	2.71
Mean commute (minutes)	21	14
Median year structure built	1938	1958