Mercer vs Sandy Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Mercer and Sandy Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

Mercer and Sandy Lake are places in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Mercer has the higher population (1,847 vs 752 in Sandy Lake). Sandy Lake has the higher median household income ($67,292 vs $44,865 in Mercer). Sandy Lake has the higher median home value ($165,800 vs $130,300 in Mercer).

Population, income & housing

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
Population	1,847	752
Median age	39.5 yrs	31.9 yrs
Median household income	$44,865	$67,292
Median home value	$130,300	$165,800
Median gross rent	$644	$745
Housing units	932	341
Homeownership rate	54.1%	58.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.4%	46.4%
Unemployment rate	7.5%	7.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
Population	1,784 → 1,847 (+3.5%)	628 → 752 (+19.7%)
Median household income	$48,015 → $44,865 (-6.6%)	$42,188 → $67,292 (+59.5%)
Median home value	$112,700 → $130,300 (+15.6%)	$116,600 → $165,800 (+42.2%)
Median gross rent	$584 → $644 (+10.3%)	$616 → $745 (+20.9%)

Mercer

Population

1,7841,847

Median household income

$48,015$44,865

Median home value

$112,700$130,300

Median gross rent

$584$644

Sandy Lake

Population

628752

Median household income

$42,188$67,292

Median home value

$116,600$165,800

Median gross rent

$616$745

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
Under 5	9.0%	8.1%
5 to 17	14.4%	16.8%
18 to 24	5.0%	8.6%
25 to 34	13.4%	23.8%
35 to 44	13.3%	14.0%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.0%
55 to 64	13.2%	7.3%
65 to 74	12.6%	7.8%
75 and over	8.6%	2.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	96.2%	95.9%
Black or African American	0.3%	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%	1.3%
Two or more races	3.1%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	0.3%	0.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
No high school diploma	13.5%	4.8%
High school graduate	35.9%	25.4%
Some college or associate's	31.2%	23.4%
Bachelor's degree	11.9%	36.6%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	9.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
Drove alone	78.0%	78.9%
Carpooled	9.6%	13.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.7%	0.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.0%
Worked from home	10.3%	5.7%
Other means	1.3%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
1-unit, detached	56.1%	73.3%
1-unit, attached	2.5%	2.6%
2 to 4 units	16.3%	16.7%
5 to 19 units	10.1%	5.6%
20 or more units	12.8%	1.2%
Mobile home & other	2.3%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Mercer	Sandy Lake
Poverty rate	15.3%	14.5%
Average household size	2.17	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	25	31
Median year structure built	1951	1954