Cave Junction vs Merlin

A side-by-side comparison of Cave Junction and Merlin: population, income, housing, and more.

Cave Junction and Merlin are places in Oregon. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Cave Junction has the higher population (1,701 vs 1,355 in Merlin). Merlin has the higher median household income ($66,342 vs $35,927 in Cave Junction). Merlin has the higher median home value ($419,100 vs $252,000 in Cave Junction).

Population, income & housing

	Cave Junction	Merlin
Population	1,701	1,355
Median age	41.7 yrs	53.2 yrs
Median household income	$35,927	$66,342
Median home value	$252,000	$419,100
Median gross rent	$1,076	$1,090
Housing units	977	595
Homeownership rate	69.3%	93.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	10.6%	24.5%
Unemployment rate	12.2%	1.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cave Junction	Merlin
Population	2,479 → 1,701 (-31.4%)	1,922 → 1,355 (-29.5%)
Median household income	$26,250 → $35,927 (+36.9%)	$57,157 → $66,342 (+16.1%)
Median home value	$167,400 → $252,000 (+50.5%)	$313,100 → $419,100 (+33.9%)
Median gross rent	$874 → $1,076 (+23.1%)	$677 → $1,090 (+61.0%)

Cave Junction

Population

2,4791,701

Median household income

$26,250$35,927

Median home value

$167,400$252,000

Median gross rent

$874$1,076

Merlin

Population

1,9221,355

Median household income

$57,157$66,342

Median home value

$313,100$419,100

Median gross rent

$677$1,090

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cave Junction	Merlin
Under 5	7.2%	0.0%
5 to 17	13.6%	13.3%
18 to 24	8.6%	1.3%
25 to 34	12.9%	12.7%
35 to 44	10.9%	7.5%
45 to 54	6.4%	17.0%
55 to 64	10.8%	19.0%
65 to 74	20.5%	16.3%
75 and over	9.1%	12.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cave Junction	Merlin
White (non-Hispanic)	86.2%	80.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	2.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.1%	14.2%
Hispanic or Latino	11.4%	2.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cave Junction	Merlin
No high school diploma	8.2%	21.2%
High school graduate	35.6%	25.4%
Some college or associate's	45.6%	28.9%
Bachelor's degree	8.8%	15.9%
Graduate or professional degree	1.7%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cave Junction	Merlin
Drove alone	58.6%	93.6%
Carpooled	17.2%	0.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	13.5%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	10.7%	6.3%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cave Junction	Merlin
1-unit, detached	66.8%	74.6%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	2.9%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	19.8%	25.4%

Poverty & households

	Cave Junction	Merlin
Poverty rate	42.2%	8.5%
Average household size	2.26	2.28
Mean commute (minutes)	27	36
Median year structure built	1988	1990