Brown County vs Lyon County

A side-by-side comparison of Brown County and Lyon County: population, income, housing, and more.

Brown County and Lyon County are counties in Minnesota. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Brown County has the higher population (25,826 vs 25,498 in Lyon County). Lyon County has the higher median household income ($72,761 vs $68,690 in Brown County). Lyon County has the higher median home value ($193,100 vs $181,700 in Brown County).

Population, income & housing

	Brown County	Lyon County
Population	25,826	25,498
Median age	42.4 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$68,690	$72,761
Median home value	$181,700	$193,100
Median gross rent	$931	$742
Housing units	11,802	11,252
Homeownership rate	79.4%	70.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.2%	28.6%
Unemployment rate	2.6%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brown County	Lyon County
Population	25,163 → 25,826 (+2.6%)	25,758 → 25,498 (-1.0%)
Median household income	$61,120 → $68,690 (+12.4%)	$57,730 → $72,761 (+26.0%)
Median home value	$141,900 → $181,700 (+28.0%)	$148,900 → $193,100 (+29.7%)
Median gross rent	$629 → $931 (+48.0%)	$666 → $742 (+11.4%)

Brown County

Population

25,16325,826

Median household income

$61,120$68,690

Median home value

$141,900$181,700

Median gross rent

$629$931

Lyon County

Population

25,75825,498

Median household income

$57,730$72,761

Median home value

$148,900$193,100

Median gross rent

$666$742

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brown County	Lyon County
Under 5	5.6%	7.4%
5 to 17	16.4%	18.7%
18 to 24	9.3%	9.7%
25 to 34	10.4%	11.6%
35 to 44	11.7%	12.0%
45 to 54	10.5%	11.1%
55 to 64	14.5%	12.5%
65 to 74	11.8%	9.6%
75 and over	10.0%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brown County	Lyon County
White (non-Hispanic)	92.2%	82.0%
Black or African American	0.8%	2.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.3%
Asian	0.6%	4.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.3%
Two or more races	1.1%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	4.8%	7.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brown County	Lyon County
No high school diploma	7.1%	8.1%
High school graduate	35.1%	27.1%
Some college or associate's	33.5%	36.1%
Bachelor's degree	16.6%	20.4%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	8.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brown County	Lyon County
Drove alone	80.5%	73.6%
Carpooled	6.5%	9.1%
Public transit	0.6%	0.1%
Walked	4.1%	4.1%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.6%
Worked from home	7.6%	10.4%
Other means	0.4%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brown County	Lyon County
1-unit, detached	80.2%	72.6%
1-unit, attached	2.8%	2.7%
2 to 4 units	4.3%	7.4%
5 to 19 units	3.0%	6.3%
20 or more units	6.5%	8.9%
Mobile home & other	3.2%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Brown County	Lyon County
Poverty rate	7.7%	12.5%
Average household size	2.25	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	15	15
Median year structure built	1961	1971