Union County vs Wright County

A side-by-side comparison of Union County and Wright County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Wright County has the higher population (12,817 vs 12,038 in Union County). Wright County has the higher median household income ($64,033 vs $56,813 in Union County). Union County has the higher median home value ($117,800 vs $109,800 in Wright County).

Population, income & housing

	Union County	Wright County
Population	12,038	12,817
Median age	40.6 yrs	39.8 yrs
Median household income	$56,813	$64,033
Median home value	$117,800	$109,800
Median gross rent	$683	$788
Housing units	5,790	6,266
Homeownership rate	72.1%	74.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.1%	23.5%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	1.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Union County	Wright County
Population	12,358 → 12,038 (-2.6%)	12,739 → 12,817 (+0.6%)
Median household income	$49,900 → $56,813 (+13.9%)	$53,333 → $64,033 (+20.1%)
Median home value	$104,000 → $117,800 (+13.3%)	$85,500 → $109,800 (+28.4%)
Median gross rent	$609 → $683 (+12.2%)	$626 → $788 (+25.9%)

Union County

Population

12,35812,038

Median household income

$49,900$56,813

Median home value

$104,000$117,800

Median gross rent

$609$683

Wright County

Population

12,73912,817

Median household income

$53,333$64,033

Median home value

$85,500$109,800

Median gross rent

$626$788

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Union County	Wright County
Under 5	5.1%	6.5%
5 to 17	18.7%	19.6%
18 to 24	8.7%	6.9%
25 to 34	10.5%	11.2%
35 to 44	12.1%	10.8%
45 to 54	11.0%	9.3%
55 to 64	13.4%	13.7%
65 to 74	11.5%	12.4%
75 and over	9.0%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Union County	Wright County
White (non-Hispanic)	92.6%	77.0%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.0%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	1.3%
Two or more races	3.3%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	3.5%	18.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Union County	Wright County
No high school diploma	7.0%	7.3%
High school graduate	34.0%	35.2%
Some college or associate's	34.9%	34.0%
Bachelor's degree	17.3%	18.2%
Graduate or professional degree	6.8%	5.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Union County	Wright County
Drove alone	78.7%	79.7%
Carpooled	11.3%	6.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.2%
Walked	5.7%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.4%
Worked from home	3.7%	8.8%
Other means	0.6%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Union County	Wright County
1-unit, detached	76.2%	84.8%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	2.0%
2 to 4 units	7.8%	5.5%
5 to 19 units	4.7%	3.2%
20 or more units	4.2%	3.4%
Mobile home & other	5.2%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Union County	Wright County
Poverty rate	12.6%	14.8%
Average household size	2.32	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	15	19
Median year structure built	1961	1957