Altoona vs Roaring Spring

A side-by-side comparison of Altoona and Roaring Spring: population, income, housing, and more.

Altoona and Roaring Spring are places in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Altoona has the higher population (43,508 vs 2,356 in Roaring Spring). Roaring Spring has the higher median household income ($62,129 vs $50,171 in Altoona). Roaring Spring has the higher median home value ($136,900 vs $113,600 in Altoona).

Population, income & housing

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
Population	43,508	2,356
Median age	39.8 yrs	36.8 yrs
Median household income	$50,171	$62,129
Median home value	$113,600	$136,900
Median gross rent	$789	$775
Housing units	20,983	1,094
Homeownership rate	64.2%	75.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	18.7%
Unemployment rate	6.7%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
Population	43,987 → 43,508 (-1.1%)	2,531 → 2,356 (-6.9%)
Median household income	$41,403 → $50,171 (+21.2%)	$51,875 → $62,129 (+19.8%)
Median home value	$88,500 → $113,600 (+28.4%)	$114,200 → $136,900 (+19.9%)
Median gross rent	$697 → $789 (+13.2%)	$652 → $775 (+18.9%)

Altoona

Population

43,98743,508

Median household income

$41,403$50,171

Median home value

$88,500$113,600

Median gross rent

$697$789

Roaring Spring

Population

2,5312,356

Median household income

$51,875$62,129

Median home value

$114,200$136,900

Median gross rent

$652$775

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
Under 5	5.7%	4.5%
5 to 17	15.8%	17.3%
18 to 24	8.4%	7.0%
25 to 34	13.9%	19.7%
35 to 44	12.2%	11.8%
45 to 54	13.0%	12.9%
55 to 64	13.7%	12.6%
65 to 74	10.0%	8.7%
75 and over	7.3%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	89.1%	91.8%
Black or African American	3.1%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.5%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.4%	5.1%
Hispanic or Latino	1.8%	2.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
No high school diploma	7.4%	3.9%
High school graduate	49.9%	39.9%
Some college or associate's	22.9%	37.5%
Bachelor's degree	14.8%	13.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	5.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
Drove alone	79.0%	86.2%
Carpooled	9.4%	7.4%
Public transit	1.4%	0.9%
Walked	3.5%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.8%	5.5%
Other means	0.9%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
1-unit, detached	71.4%	76.5%
1-unit, attached	4.2%	6.8%
2 to 4 units	12.7%	9.1%
5 to 19 units	4.8%	6.1%
20 or more units	6.3%	0.4%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Altoona	Roaring Spring
Poverty rate	18.8%	13.5%
Average household size	2.29	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	19	38
Median year structure built	1944	1938