Clay County vs Crawford County

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

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

Clay County has the higher population (16,446 vs 16,289 in Crawford County). Crawford County has the higher median household income ($65,039 vs $64,082 in Clay County). Clay County has the higher median home value ($171,500 vs $136,300 in Crawford County).

Population, income & housing

	Clay County	Crawford County
Population	16,446	16,289
Median age	41.8 yrs	37.9 yrs
Median household income	$64,082	$65,039
Median home value	$171,500	$136,300
Median gross rent	$798	$727
Housing units	8,141	6,852
Homeownership rate	72.7%	78.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	18.3%
Unemployment rate	4.0%	1.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay County	Crawford County
Population	16,211 → 16,446 (+1.4%)	17,034 → 16,289 (-4.4%)
Median household income	$50,521 → $64,082 (+26.8%)	$55,755 → $65,039 (+16.7%)
Median home value	$124,100 → $171,500 (+38.2%)	$93,400 → $136,300 (+45.9%)
Median gross rent	$700 → $798 (+14.0%)	$631 → $727 (+15.2%)

Clay County

Population

16,21116,446

Median household income

$50,521$64,082

Median home value

$124,100$171,500

Median gross rent

$700$798

Crawford County

Population

17,03416,289

Median household income

$55,755$65,039

Median home value

$93,400$136,300

Median gross rent

$631$727

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay County	Crawford County
Under 5	5.3%	6.1%
5 to 17	17.8%	19.2%
18 to 24	7.6%	9.5%
25 to 34	10.6%	11.0%
35 to 44	11.8%	11.0%
45 to 54	11.2%	11.7%
55 to 64	13.7%	13.4%
65 to 74	12.3%	10.3%
75 and over	9.6%	7.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay County	Crawford County
White (non-Hispanic)	91.7%	62.8%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	2.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.3%	3.1%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	30.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay County	Crawford County
No high school diploma	5.1%	16.0%
High school graduate	32.7%	35.7%
Some college or associate's	36.2%	30.1%
Bachelor's degree	18.6%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	3.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay County	Crawford County
Drove alone	78.9%	76.7%
Carpooled	8.9%	10.3%
Public transit	1.1%	2.8%
Walked	4.2%	3.5%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.5%	6.1%
Other means	0.2%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay County	Crawford County
1-unit, detached	75.5%	76.8%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	4.1%
2 to 4 units	7.1%	6.2%
5 to 19 units	7.5%	1.8%
20 or more units	6.5%	3.9%
Mobile home & other	1.8%	7.2%

Poverty & households

	Clay County	Crawford County
Poverty rate	11.5%	16.4%
Average household size	2.22	2.54
Mean commute (minutes)	19	18
Median year structure built	1966	1963