Merrimack County vs Rockingham County

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

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

Rockingham County has the higher population (317,163 vs 155,018 in Merrimack County). Rockingham County has the higher median household income ($113,927 vs $93,944 in Merrimack County). Rockingham County has the higher median home value ($461,400 vs $330,600 in Merrimack County).

Population, income & housing

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
Population	155,018	317,163
Median age	42.6 yrs	44.8 yrs
Median household income	$93,944	$113,927
Median home value	$330,600	$461,400
Median gross rent	$1,293	$1,619
Housing units	66,080	136,681
Homeownership rate	73.5%	78.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	38.1%	44.8%
Unemployment rate	3.1%	3.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
Population	149,917 → 155,018 (+3.4%)	306,359 → 317,163 (+3.5%)
Median household income	$75,737 → $93,944 (+24.0%)	$93,756 → $113,927 (+21.5%)
Median home value	$237,600 → $330,600 (+39.1%)	$326,300 → $461,400 (+41.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,042 → $1,293 (+24.1%)	$1,228 → $1,619 (+31.8%)

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

Rockingham County

Population

306,359317,163

Median household income

$93,756$113,927

Median home value

$326,300$461,400

Median gross rent

$1,228$1,619

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
Under 5	4.5%	4.5%
5 to 17	14.1%	14.2%
18 to 24	9.1%	7.1%
25 to 34	12.7%	11.9%
35 to 44	12.5%	12.4%
45 to 54	12.6%	13.6%
55 to 64	15.1%	16.7%
65 to 74	11.9%	12.1%
75 and over	7.4%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
White (non-Hispanic)	90.6%	90.0%
Black or African American	1.5%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.6%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.3%	3.1%
Hispanic or Latino	2.6%	3.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
No high school diploma	6.3%	3.9%
High school graduate	28.2%	25.0%
Some college or associate's	27.4%	26.3%
Bachelor's degree	22.2%	27.8%
Graduate or professional degree	15.9%	17.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
Drove alone	75.0%	73.9%
Carpooled	7.7%	5.5%
Public transit	0.3%	0.6%
Walked	2.7%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.2%
Worked from home	13.1%	17.2%
Other means	0.9%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
1-unit, detached	63.2%	65.2%
1-unit, attached	4.4%	8.0%
2 to 4 units	11.5%	7.5%
5 to 19 units	7.2%	7.4%
20 or more units	7.1%	7.2%
Mobile home & other	6.6%	4.8%

Poverty & households

	Merrimack County	Rockingham County
Poverty rate	7.1%	4.8%
Average household size	2.46	2.49
Mean commute (minutes)	27	29
Median year structure built	1977	1982