Emerson, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Emerson city is a very small community in Iowa, with 547 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #449 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 56% of them. The median age here is 45.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Emerson city earn a median of $47,426 a year, 39.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 30% below the $67,791 median for the 290 Iowa cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 16.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Emerson city is valued at $113,600, 62.6% below the national figure and 27% below the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $913 a month, 35.1% below the national figure, or roughly $10,956 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 80.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

With 547 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Emerson city against its county rather than against national figures.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.