Brown County vs Mercer County

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

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

Brown County has the higher population (43,710 vs 42,438 in Mercer County). Mercer County has the higher median household income ($78,036 vs $69,990 in Brown County). Mercer County has the higher median home value ($208,600 vs $181,100 in Brown County).

Population, income & housing

	Brown County	Mercer County
Population	43,710	42,438
Median age	42.1 yrs	39.1 yrs
Median household income	$69,990	$78,036
Median home value	$181,100	$208,600
Median gross rent	$822	$812
Housing units	19,460	18,023
Homeownership rate	76.1%	79.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	15.8%	22.2%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	1.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brown County	Mercer County
Population	43,572 → 43,710 (+0.3%)	40,884 → 42,438 (+3.8%)
Median household income	$54,575 → $69,990 (+28.2%)	$62,952 → $78,036 (+24.0%)
Median home value	$132,400 → $181,100 (+36.8%)	$153,800 → $208,600 (+35.6%)
Median gross rent	$719 → $822 (+14.3%)	$679 → $812 (+19.6%)

Brown County

Population

43,57243,710

Median household income

$54,575$69,990

Median home value

$132,400$181,100

Median gross rent

$719$822

Mercer County

Population

40,88442,438

Median household income

$62,952$78,036

Median home value

$153,800$208,600

Median gross rent

$679$812

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brown County	Mercer County
Under 5	5.7%	7.2%
5 to 17	17.2%	18.9%
18 to 24	7.2%	8.0%
25 to 34	11.6%	11.2%
35 to 44	11.9%	11.1%
45 to 54	12.7%	11.3%
55 to 64	14.8%	13.6%
65 to 74	11.2%	11.0%
75 and over	7.6%	7.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brown County	Mercer County
White (non-Hispanic)	95.2%	94.4%
Black or African American	0.8%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.2%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	2.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brown County	Mercer County
No high school diploma	12.2%	5.3%
High school graduate	45.9%	43.5%
Some college or associate's	26.1%	29.0%
Bachelor's degree	10.2%	14.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.6%	8.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brown County	Mercer County
Drove alone	80.3%	87.5%
Carpooled	11.6%	6.4%
Public transit	0.4%	0.1%
Walked	0.6%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	6.3%	3.7%
Other means	0.8%	0.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brown County	Mercer County
1-unit, detached	75.7%	81.3%
1-unit, attached	1.2%	1.5%
2 to 4 units	4.1%	6.7%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	2.7%
20 or more units	1.1%	1.8%
Mobile home & other	15.2%	6.0%

Poverty & households

	Brown County	Mercer County
Poverty rate	17.4%	6.1%
Average household size	2.52	2.57
Mean commute (minutes)	33	19
Median year structure built	1982	1974