Clay County vs Howard County

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

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

Howard County has the higher population (6,492 vs 6,084 in Clay County). Clay County has the higher median household income ($75,938 vs $74,508 in Howard County). Howard County has the higher median home value ($205,200 vs $146,300 in Clay County).

Population, income & housing

	Clay County	Howard County
Population	6,084	6,492
Median age	40.1 yrs	42.3 yrs
Median household income	$75,938	$74,508
Median home value	$146,300	$205,200
Median gross rent	$701	$811
Housing units	2,816	2,893
Homeownership rate	80.6%	74.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.9%	23.0%
Unemployment rate	1.5%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay County	Howard County
Population	6,203 → 6,084 (-1.9%)	6,417 → 6,492 (+1.2%)
Median household income	$57,173 → $75,938 (+32.8%)	$59,348 → $74,508 (+25.5%)
Median home value	$91,300 → $146,300 (+60.2%)	$148,800 → $205,200 (+37.9%)
Median gross rent	$607 → $701 (+15.5%)	$685 → $811 (+18.4%)

Clay County

Population

6,2036,084

Median household income

$57,173$75,938

Median home value

$91,300$146,300

Median gross rent

$607$701

Howard County

Population

6,4176,492

Median household income

$59,348$74,508

Median home value

$148,800$205,200

Median gross rent

$685$811

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay County	Howard County
Under 5	6.4%	6.8%
5 to 17	18.2%	18.6%
18 to 24	6.5%	5.9%
25 to 34	11.6%	10.4%
35 to 44	11.0%	11.3%
45 to 54	10.7%	11.0%
55 to 64	14.9%	13.8%
65 to 74	12.5%	12.5%
75 and over	8.1%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay County	Howard County
White (non-Hispanic)	87.9%	91.8%
Black or African American	0.7%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.8%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	9.4%	3.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay County	Howard County
No high school diploma	5.9%	4.8%
High school graduate	35.8%	35.9%
Some college or associate's	35.5%	36.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.5%	19.0%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	3.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay County	Howard County
Drove alone	82.0%	81.5%
Carpooled	6.4%	6.7%
Public transit	0.3%	0.0%
Walked	2.6%	2.3%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.1%	7.8%
Other means	0.5%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay County	Howard County
1-unit, detached	87.4%	90.2%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	1.1%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	1.6%	1.7%
20 or more units	0.3%	1.5%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	3.1%

Poverty & households

	Clay County	Howard County
Poverty rate	8.1%	5.4%
Average household size	2.42	2.58
Mean commute (minutes)	22	28
Median year structure built	1957	1966