Buchanan County vs Carroll County

A side-by-side comparison of Buchanan County and Carroll County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Carroll County has the higher population (20,677 vs 20,645 in Buchanan County). Buchanan County has the higher median household income ($78,430 vs $68,528 in Carroll County). Carroll County has the higher median home value ($175,700 vs $171,400 in Buchanan County).

Population, income & housing

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
Population	20,645	20,677
Median age	39.9 yrs	41.8 yrs
Median household income	$78,430	$68,528
Median home value	$171,400	$175,700
Median gross rent	$802	$722
Housing units	8,946	9,508
Homeownership rate	81.1%	75.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.3%	23.4%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
Population	21,118 → 20,645 (-2.2%)	20,281 → 20,677 (+2.0%)
Median household income	$64,837 → $78,430 (+21.0%)	$59,212 → $68,528 (+15.7%)
Median home value	$142,500 → $171,400 (+20.3%)	$138,900 → $175,700 (+26.5%)
Median gross rent	$678 → $802 (+18.3%)	$621 → $722 (+16.3%)

Buchanan County

Population

21,11820,645

Median household income

$64,837$78,430

Median home value

$142,500$171,400

Median gross rent

$678$802

Carroll County

Population

20,28120,677

Median household income

$59,212$68,528

Median home value

$138,900$175,700

Median gross rent

$621$722

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
Under 5	6.6%	5.6%
5 to 17	19.1%	18.5%
18 to 24	7.1%	7.9%
25 to 34	10.9%	10.5%
35 to 44	12.6%	11.3%
45 to 54	11.5%	10.9%
55 to 64	13.9%	14.3%
65 to 74	10.9%	11.4%
75 and over	7.4%	9.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
White (non-Hispanic)	95.2%	92.9%
Black or African American	0.7%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.2%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	1.8%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.8%	3.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
No high school diploma	5.4%	5.0%
High school graduate	36.1%	38.6%
Some college or associate's	36.2%	33.0%
Bachelor's degree	15.9%	17.8%
Graduate or professional degree	6.4%	5.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
Drove alone	78.2%	83.3%
Carpooled	8.9%	7.5%
Public transit	0.3%	0.5%
Walked	3.1%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.9%	6.5%
Other means	0.3%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
1-unit, detached	81.8%	80.7%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	3.7%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	4.7%
5 to 19 units	2.1%	5.3%
20 or more units	1.6%	4.5%
Mobile home & other	5.5%	1.2%

Poverty & households

	Buchanan County	Carroll County
Poverty rate	7.0%	8.3%
Average household size	2.51	2.31
Mean commute (minutes)	23	15
Median year structure built	1971	1964