Bay County vs Clay County

A side-by-side comparison of Bay County and Clay County: population, income, housing, and more.

Bay County and Clay County are counties in Florida. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Clay County has the higher population (223,436 vs 181,368 in Bay County). Clay County has the higher median household income ($86,094 vs $70,188 in Bay County). Clay County has the higher median home value ($281,500 vs $276,900 in Bay County).

Population, income & housing

	Bay County	Clay County
Population	181,368	223,436
Median age	41.4 yrs	40.2 yrs
Median household income	$70,188	$86,094
Median home value	$276,900	$281,500
Median gross rent	$1,424	$1,464
Housing units	106,209	87,165
Homeownership rate	68.3%	76.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	28.0%	28.7%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bay County	Clay County
Population	182,161 → 181,368 (-0.4%)	211,405 → 223,436 (+5.7%)
Median household income	$54,316 → $70,188 (+29.2%)	$65,740 → $86,094 (+31.0%)
Median home value	$178,400 → $276,900 (+55.2%)	$185,400 → $281,500 (+51.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,049 → $1,424 (+35.7%)	$1,148 → $1,464 (+27.5%)

Bay County

Population

182,161181,368

Median household income

$54,316$70,188

Median home value

$178,400$276,900

Median gross rent

$1,049$1,424

Clay County

Population

211,405223,436

Median household income

$65,740$86,094

Median home value

$185,400$281,500

Median gross rent

$1,148$1,464

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bay County	Clay County
Under 5	5.6%	5.2%
5 to 17	15.5%	17.7%
18 to 24	7.4%	7.7%
25 to 34	13.3%	12.1%
35 to 44	12.7%	13.5%
45 to 54	12.5%	13.1%
55 to 64	14.8%	13.9%
65 to 74	11.1%	10.4%
75 and over	7.1%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bay County	Clay County
White (non-Hispanic)	73.7%	69.1%
Black or African American	9.8%	11.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	1.9%	2.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.7%	1.0%
Two or more races	5.2%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	8.4%	11.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bay County	Clay County
No high school diploma	9.2%	6.7%
High school graduate	27.9%	27.6%
Some college or associate's	34.9%	37.0%
Bachelor's degree	17.8%	18.9%
Graduate or professional degree	10.2%	9.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bay County	Clay County
Drove alone	76.4%	73.9%
Carpooled	11.6%	8.7%
Public transit	0.6%	0.1%
Walked	1.1%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.2%
Worked from home	8.8%	14.5%
Other means	1.2%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bay County	Clay County
1-unit, detached	50.8%	73.5%
1-unit, attached	4.7%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	6.5%	3.1%
5 to 19 units	8.4%	5.1%
20 or more units	17.8%	2.5%
Mobile home & other	11.7%	12.0%

Poverty & households

	Bay County	Clay County
Poverty rate	11.7%	9.1%
Average household size	2.35	2.71
Mean commute (minutes)	25	32
Median year structure built	1992	1995