Belknap County vs Merrimack County

A side-by-side comparison of Belknap County and Merrimack County: population, income, housing, and more.

Belknap County and Merrimack County are counties in New Hampshire. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Merrimack County has the higher population (155,018 vs 64,300 in Belknap County). Merrimack County has the higher median household income ($93,944 vs $87,983 in Belknap County). Belknap County has the higher median home value ($340,000 vs $330,600 in Merrimack County).

Population, income & housing

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
Population	64,300	155,018
Median age	48.3 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$87,983	$93,944
Median home value	$340,000	$330,600
Median gross rent	$1,184	$1,293
Housing units	38,718	66,080
Homeownership rate	78.7%	73.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.6%	38.1%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	3.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
Population	60,887 → 64,300 (+5.6%)	149,917 → 155,018 (+3.4%)
Median household income	$69,447 → $87,983 (+26.7%)	$75,737 → $93,944 (+24.0%)
Median home value	$226,500 → $340,000 (+50.1%)	$237,600 → $330,600 (+39.1%)
Median gross rent	$999 → $1,184 (+18.5%)	$1,042 → $1,293 (+24.1%)

Belknap County

Population

60,88764,300

Median household income

$69,447$87,983

Median home value

$226,500$340,000

Median gross rent

$999$1,184

Merrimack County

Population

149,917155,018

Median household income

$75,737$93,944

Median home value

$237,600$330,600

Median gross rent

$1,042$1,293

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
Under 5	4.0%	4.5%
5 to 17	13.7%	14.1%
18 to 24	6.4%	9.1%
25 to 34	11.0%	12.7%
35 to 44	11.1%	12.5%
45 to 54	12.5%	12.6%
55 to 64	18.0%	15.1%
65 to 74	14.7%	11.9%
75 and over	8.7%	7.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
White (non-Hispanic)	93.2%	90.6%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.2%	1.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.4%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	2.2%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
No high school diploma	6.2%	6.3%
High school graduate	29.5%	28.2%
Some college or associate's	31.7%	27.4%
Bachelor's degree	19.4%	22.2%
Graduate or professional degree	13.1%	15.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
Drove alone	77.9%	75.0%
Carpooled	7.8%	7.7%
Public transit	0.3%	0.3%
Walked	1.4%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.3%
Worked from home	11.5%	13.1%
Other means	0.9%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
1-unit, detached	73.2%	63.2%
1-unit, attached	3.9%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	7.6%	11.5%
5 to 19 units	5.2%	7.2%
20 or more units	2.5%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	7.5%	6.6%

Poverty & households

	Belknap County	Merrimack County
Poverty rate	8.8%	7.1%
Average household size	2.42	2.46
Mean commute (minutes)	26	27
Median year structure built	1979	1977