Appanoose County vs Shelby County

A side-by-side comparison of Appanoose County and Shelby County: population, income, housing, and more.

Appanoose County and Shelby County are counties in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Appanoose County has the higher population (12,242 vs 11,757 in Shelby County). Shelby County has the higher median household income ($67,690 vs $51,146 in Appanoose County). Shelby County has the higher median home value ($156,200 vs $119,800 in Appanoose County).

Population, income & housing

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
Population	12,242	11,757
Median age	45.5 yrs	45.1 yrs
Median household income	$51,146	$67,690
Median home value	$119,800	$156,200
Median gross rent	$779	$810
Housing units	6,314	5,429
Homeownership rate	69.1%	75.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.3%	23.3%
Unemployment rate	6.9%	3.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
Population	12,452 → 12,242 (-1.7%)	11,606 → 11,757 (+1.3%)
Median household income	$40,167 → $51,146 (+27.3%)	$58,000 → $67,690 (+16.7%)
Median home value	$81,400 → $119,800 (+47.2%)	$121,200 → $156,200 (+28.9%)
Median gross rent	$624 → $779 (+24.8%)	$643 → $810 (+26.0%)

Appanoose County

Population

12,45212,242

Median household income

$40,167$51,146

Median home value

$81,400$119,800

Median gross rent

$624$779

Shelby County

Population

11,60611,757

Median household income

$58,000$67,690

Median home value

$121,200$156,200

Median gross rent

$643$810

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
Under 5	4.9%	5.5%
5 to 17	16.5%	17.3%
18 to 24	6.7%	6.9%
25 to 34	10.3%	9.8%
35 to 44	11.2%	10.3%
45 to 54	12.6%	11.3%
55 to 64	14.4%	15.6%
65 to 74	13.2%	12.2%
75 and over	10.2%	11.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
White (non-Hispanic)	94.2%	92.1%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	0.4%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.6%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	1.7%	3.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
No high school diploma	10.3%	4.7%
High school graduate	36.7%	36.6%
Some college or associate's	33.7%	35.3%
Bachelor's degree	15.2%	16.0%
Graduate or professional degree	4.1%	7.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
Drove alone	79.3%	77.3%
Carpooled	10.5%	5.0%
Public transit	0.1%	0.2%
Walked	1.2%	5.3%
Bicycle	0.8%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.5%	11.5%
Other means	1.6%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
1-unit, detached	77.0%	88.5%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	6.1%	4.8%
5 to 19 units	3.4%	0.6%
20 or more units	5.7%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	6.8%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Appanoose County	Shelby County
Poverty rate	20.4%	8.5%
Average household size	2.41	2.32
Mean commute (minutes)	21	18
Median year structure built	1964	1946