Brainard, NE population, income and ZIP codes

Brainard village is a very small community in Nebraska, with 279 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #300 of 593 ranked by population — larger than 49% of them. The median age here is 50.5 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 Brainard village earn a median of $73,750 a year, 6.1% below the national figure of $78,538 and 9% above the $67,419 median for the 119 Nebraska cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 3.9% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Brainard village is valued at $158,700, 47.7% below the national figure and within a couple of points of the $161,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $700 a month, 50.2% below the national figure, or roughly $8,400 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 11.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.2×, 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. 82.4% 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. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 50.5 puts Brainard village well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages. With 279 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Brainard village against its county rather than against national figures.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.