Carroll County vs Merrimack County

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

Carroll 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 51,259 in Carroll County). Merrimack County has the higher median household income ($93,944 vs $82,961 in Carroll County). Carroll County has the higher median home value ($348,900 vs $330,600 in Merrimack County).

Population, income & housing

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
Population	51,259	155,018
Median age	54.2 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$82,961	$93,944
Median home value	$348,900	$330,600
Median gross rent	$1,179	$1,293
Housing units	40,110	66,080
Homeownership rate	81.2%	73.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	38.8%	38.1%
Unemployment rate	5.3%	3.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
Population	48,138 → 51,259 (+6.5%)	149,917 → 155,018 (+3.4%)
Median household income	$63,153 → $82,961 (+31.4%)	$75,737 → $93,944 (+24.0%)
Median home value	$242,800 → $348,900 (+43.7%)	$237,600 → $330,600 (+39.1%)
Median gross rent	$948 → $1,179 (+24.4%)	$1,042 → $1,293 (+24.1%)

Carroll County

Population

48,13851,259

Median household income

$63,153$82,961

Median home value

$242,800$348,900

Median gross rent

$948$1,179

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)

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
Under 5	3.4%	4.5%
5 to 17	11.7%	14.1%
18 to 24	5.5%	9.1%
25 to 34	9.2%	12.7%
35 to 44	9.6%	12.5%
45 to 54	11.7%	12.6%
55 to 64	18.8%	15.1%
65 to 74	18.8%	11.9%
75 and over	11.3%	7.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
White (non-Hispanic)	94.3%	90.6%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	0.8%	1.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.3%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.7%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
No high school diploma	4.4%	6.3%
High school graduate	25.6%	28.2%
Some college or associate's	31.1%	27.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.3%	22.2%
Graduate or professional degree	16.5%	15.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
Drove alone	74.7%	75.0%
Carpooled	6.7%	7.7%
Public transit	0.4%	0.3%
Walked	2.1%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	15.0%	13.1%
Other means	1.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
1-unit, detached	77.2%	63.2%
1-unit, attached	2.4%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	11.5%
5 to 19 units	6.0%	7.2%
20 or more units	1.9%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	6.5%	6.6%

Poverty & households

	Carroll County	Merrimack County
Poverty rate	7.5%	7.1%
Average household size	2.29	2.46
Mean commute (minutes)	26	27
Median year structure built	1981	1977