Clay County vs Madison County

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

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

Madison County has the higher population (16,760 vs 16,446 in Clay County). Madison County has the higher median household income ($89,542 vs $64,082 in Clay County). Madison County has the higher median home value ($236,900 vs $171,500 in Clay County).

Population, income & housing

	Clay County	Madison County
Population	16,446	16,760
Median age	41.8 yrs	41.0 yrs
Median household income	$64,082	$89,542
Median home value	$171,500	$236,900
Median gross rent	$798	$938
Housing units	8,141	7,031
Homeownership rate	72.7%	81.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	25.5%
Unemployment rate	4.0%	2.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay County	Madison County
Population	16,211 → 16,446 (+1.4%)	16,012 → 16,760 (+4.7%)
Median household income	$50,521 → $64,082 (+26.8%)	$66,316 → $89,542 (+35.0%)
Median home value	$124,100 → $171,500 (+38.2%)	$177,500 → $236,900 (+33.5%)
Median gross rent	$700 → $798 (+14.0%)	$789 → $938 (+18.9%)

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

Madison County

Population

16,01216,760

Median household income

$66,316$89,542

Median home value

$177,500$236,900

Median gross rent

$789$938

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay County	Madison County
Under 5	5.3%	5.3%
5 to 17	17.8%	19.6%
18 to 24	7.6%	7.0%
25 to 34	10.6%	9.6%
35 to 44	11.8%	13.3%
45 to 54	11.2%	13.4%
55 to 64	13.7%	13.7%
65 to 74	12.3%	11.4%
75 and over	9.6%	6.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay County	Madison County
White (non-Hispanic)	91.7%	94.3%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.3%	2.2%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	2.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay County	Madison County
No high school diploma	5.1%	4.7%
High school graduate	32.7%	33.7%
Some college or associate's	36.2%	36.1%
Bachelor's degree	18.6%	19.3%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	6.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay County	Madison County
Drove alone	78.9%	75.7%
Carpooled	8.9%	5.6%
Public transit	1.1%	0.1%
Walked	4.2%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.5%	14.8%
Other means	0.2%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay County	Madison County
1-unit, detached	75.5%	84.6%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	7.1%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	7.5%	2.0%
20 or more units	6.5%	1.8%
Mobile home & other	1.8%	4.0%

Poverty & households

	Clay County	Madison County
Poverty rate	11.5%	6.8%
Average household size	2.22	2.50
Mean commute (minutes)	19	27
Median year structure built	1966	1977