Perry County vs Wayne County

A side-by-side comparison of Perry County and Wayne County: population, income, housing, and more.

Perry County and Wayne County are counties in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Wayne County has the higher population (51,189 vs 45,988 in Perry County). Perry County has the higher median household income ($78,824 vs $62,182 in Wayne County). Wayne County has the higher median home value ($228,200 vs $222,800 in Perry County).

Population, income & housing

	Perry County	Wayne County
Population	45,988	51,189
Median age	43.8 yrs	48.9 yrs
Median household income	$78,824	$62,182
Median home value	$222,800	$228,200
Median gross rent	$838	$979
Housing units	20,010	32,054
Homeownership rate	80.7%	81.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.6%	21.6%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	6.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Perry County	Wayne County
Population	46,053 → 45,988 (-0.1%)	51,422 → 51,189 (-0.5%)
Median household income	$63,718 → $78,824 (+23.7%)	$56,096 → $62,182 (+10.8%)
Median home value	$169,300 → $222,800 (+31.6%)	$181,300 → $228,200 (+25.9%)
Median gross rent	$792 → $838 (+5.8%)	$820 → $979 (+19.4%)

Perry County

Population

46,05345,988

Median household income

$63,718$78,824

Median home value

$169,300$222,800

Median gross rent

$792$838

Wayne County

Population

51,42251,189

Median household income

$56,096$62,182

Median home value

$181,300$228,200

Median gross rent

$820$979

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Perry County	Wayne County
Under 5	5.4%	4.1%
5 to 17	15.7%	12.6%
18 to 24	6.7%	6.3%
25 to 34	11.6%	11.2%
35 to 44	11.9%	11.4%
45 to 54	13.3%	12.8%
55 to 64	15.5%	16.6%
65 to 74	12.4%	15.1%
75 and over	7.5%	9.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Perry County	Wayne County
White (non-Hispanic)	93.9%	88.3%
Black or African American	0.8%	2.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.7%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	2.3%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Perry County	Wayne County
No high school diploma	10.1%	8.6%
High school graduate	46.3%	43.3%
Some college or associate's	24.9%	26.5%
Bachelor's degree	12.9%	12.6%
Graduate or professional degree	5.7%	8.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Perry County	Wayne County
Drove alone	75.8%	75.7%
Carpooled	8.5%	9.0%
Public transit	0.2%	0.3%
Walked	1.6%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	13.0%	10.4%
Other means	0.8%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Perry County	Wayne County
1-unit, detached	78.9%	84.9%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	3.8%	4.0%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	1.3%
20 or more units	1.1%	0.6%
Mobile home & other	9.1%	8.4%

Poverty & households

	Perry County	Wayne County
Poverty rate	8.0%	12.2%
Average household size	2.50	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	31	29
Median year structure built	1977	1980