Clay County vs Hardin County

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

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

Hardin County has the higher population (16,729 vs 16,446 in Clay County). Hardin County has the higher median household income ($64,906 vs $64,082 in Clay County). Clay County has the higher median home value ($171,500 vs $113,000 in Hardin County).

Population, income & housing

	Clay County	Hardin County
Population	16,446	16,729
Median age	41.8 yrs	45.2 yrs
Median household income	$64,082	$64,906
Median home value	$171,500	$113,000
Median gross rent	$798	$814
Housing units	8,141	8,028
Homeownership rate	72.7%	73.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	21.2%
Unemployment rate	4.0%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay County	Hardin County
Population	16,211 → 16,446 (+1.4%)	17,061 → 16,729 (-1.9%)
Median household income	$50,521 → $64,082 (+26.8%)	$54,196 → $64,906 (+19.8%)
Median home value	$124,100 → $171,500 (+38.2%)	$94,300 → $113,000 (+19.8%)
Median gross rent	$700 → $798 (+14.0%)	$639 → $814 (+27.4%)

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

Hardin County

Population

17,06116,729

Median household income

$54,196$64,906

Median home value

$94,300$113,000

Median gross rent

$639$814

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay County	Hardin County
Under 5	5.3%	4.6%
5 to 17	17.8%	14.7%
18 to 24	7.6%	7.8%
25 to 34	10.6%	10.3%
35 to 44	11.8%	12.5%
45 to 54	11.2%	11.7%
55 to 64	13.7%	15.5%
65 to 74	12.3%	12.7%
75 and over	9.6%	10.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay County	Hardin County
White (non-Hispanic)	91.7%	90.7%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.3%
Asian	0.3%	0.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.3%	1.9%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	5.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay County	Hardin County
No high school diploma	5.1%	6.3%
High school graduate	32.7%	33.6%
Some college or associate's	36.2%	38.9%
Bachelor's degree	18.6%	15.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	5.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay County	Hardin County
Drove alone	78.9%	79.0%
Carpooled	8.9%	5.2%
Public transit	1.1%	0.5%
Walked	4.2%	5.0%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.2%
Worked from home	6.5%	8.4%
Other means	0.2%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay County	Hardin County
1-unit, detached	75.5%	84.5%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	1.1%
2 to 4 units	7.1%	8.1%
5 to 19 units	7.5%	3.6%
20 or more units	6.5%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	1.8%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Clay County	Hardin County
Poverty rate	11.5%	8.6%
Average household size	2.22	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	19	21
Median year structure built	1966	1954