De Soto vs Gays Mills

A side-by-side comparison of De Soto and Gays Mills: population, income, housing, and more.

De Soto and Gays Mills are places in Wisconsin. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Gays Mills has the higher population (577 vs 497 in De Soto). De Soto has the higher median household income ($89,440 vs $35,682 in Gays Mills). Gays Mills has the higher median home value ($156,900 vs $117,600 in De Soto).

Population, income & housing

	De Soto	Gays Mills
Population	497	577
Median age	57.2 yrs	36.2 yrs
Median household income	$89,440	$35,682
Median home value	$117,600	$156,900
Median gross rent	$590	$775
Housing units	288	325
Homeownership rate	88.0%	65.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	9.2%	15.7%
Unemployment rate	1.4%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	De Soto	Gays Mills
Population	320 → 497 (+55.3%)	494 → 577 (+16.8%)
Median household income	$60,625 → $89,440 (+47.5%)	$34,250 → $35,682 (+4.2%)
Median home value	$107,300 → $117,600 (+9.6%)	$93,000 → $156,900 (+68.7%)
Median gross rent	$655 → $590 (-9.9%)	$575 → $775 (+34.8%)

De Soto

Population

320497

Median household income

$60,625$89,440

Median home value

$107,300$117,600

Median gross rent

$655$590

Gays Mills

Population

494577

Median household income

$34,250$35,682

Median home value

$93,000$156,900

Median gross rent

$575$775

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	De Soto	Gays Mills
Under 5	0.0%	7.5%
5 to 17	9.3%	18.9%
18 to 24	9.7%	7.5%
25 to 34	2.2%	15.6%
35 to 44	19.1%	11.4%
45 to 54	7.4%	7.5%
55 to 64	23.9%	9.7%
65 to 74	10.9%	17.9%
75 and over	17.5%	4.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	De Soto	Gays Mills
White (non-Hispanic)	97.0%	84.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	0.4%	8.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	De Soto	Gays Mills
No high school diploma	5.7%	3.9%
High school graduate	69.5%	42.7%
Some college or associate's	15.6%	37.7%
Bachelor's degree	8.2%	9.7%
Graduate or professional degree	1.0%	6.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	De Soto	Gays Mills
Drove alone	88.6%	56.3%
Carpooled	1.4%	23.7%
Public transit	1.4%	0.0%
Walked	1.4%	4.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	4.5%
Worked from home	4.3%	7.6%
Other means	2.9%	3.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	De Soto	Gays Mills
1-unit, detached	42.4%	75.4%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	3.7%
2 to 4 units	3.8%	4.3%
5 to 19 units	4.2%	8.6%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	49.7%	8.0%

Poverty & households

	De Soto	Gays Mills
Poverty rate	4.4%	16.5%
Average household size	2.12	2.24
Mean commute (minutes)	36	28
Median year structure built	1976	1980