Grand Island vs Wood River

A side-by-side comparison of Grand Island and Wood River: population, income, housing, and more.

Grand Island and Wood River are places in Nebraska. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Grand Island has the higher population (52,761 vs 1,426 in Wood River). Wood River has the higher median household income ($76,591 vs $62,439 in Grand Island). Grand Island has the higher median home value ($202,600 vs $131,400 in Wood River).

Population, income & housing

	Grand Island	Wood River
Population	52,761	1,426
Median age	34.5 yrs	36.9 yrs
Median household income	$62,439	$76,591
Median home value	$202,600	$131,400
Median gross rent	$913	$820
Housing units	21,366	522
Homeownership rate	59.5%	82.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.7%	19.4%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Grand Island	Wood River
Population	51,147 → 52,761 (+3.2%)	1,420 → 1,426 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$54,965 → $62,439 (+13.6%)	$54,750 → $76,591 (+39.9%)
Median home value	$140,800 → $202,600 (+43.9%)	$102,800 → $131,400 (+27.8%)
Median gross rent	$767 → $913 (+19.0%)	$759 → $820 (+8.0%)

Grand Island

Population

51,14752,761

Median household income

$54,965$62,439

Median home value

$140,800$202,600

Median gross rent

$767$913

Wood River

Population

1,4201,426

Median household income

$54,750$76,591

Median home value

$102,800$131,400

Median gross rent

$759$820

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Grand Island	Wood River
Under 5	8.0%	8.6%
5 to 17	20.4%	20.9%
18 to 24	8.7%	5.4%
25 to 34	13.4%	12.5%
35 to 44	12.7%	15.6%
45 to 54	11.2%	9.4%
55 to 64	10.9%	9.7%
65 to 74	8.5%	9.7%
75 and over	6.2%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Grand Island	Wood River
White (non-Hispanic)	57.2%	73.2%
Black or African American	3.7%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.3%
Asian	1.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.9%	0.4%
Hispanic or Latino	35.4%	26.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Grand Island	Wood River
No high school diploma	17.1%	12.2%
High school graduate	31.7%	33.6%
Some college or associate's	30.5%	34.8%
Bachelor's degree	13.3%	14.2%
Graduate or professional degree	7.5%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Grand Island	Wood River
Drove alone	81.4%	86.6%
Carpooled	12.3%	7.6%
Public transit	0.3%	1.0%
Walked	0.6%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.5%	3.1%
Other means	1.7%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Grand Island	Wood River
1-unit, detached	62.7%	79.7%
1-unit, attached	4.7%	0.8%
2 to 4 units	11.4%	10.0%
5 to 19 units	9.0%	0.6%
20 or more units	8.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	4.2%	9.0%

Poverty & households

	Grand Island	Wood River
Poverty rate	12.5%	10.1%
Average household size	2.52	2.83
Mean commute (minutes)	17	26
Median year structure built	1975	1969