Alta vs Marathon

A side-by-side comparison of Alta and Marathon: population, income, housing, and more.

Alta and Marathon are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Alta has the higher population (2,344 vs 199 in Marathon). Alta has the higher median household income ($66,118 vs $40,417 in Marathon). Alta has the higher median home value ($125,800 vs $41,700 in Marathon).

Population, income & housing

	Alta	Marathon
Population	2,344	199
Median age	37.6 yrs	55.4 yrs
Median household income	$66,118	$40,417
Median home value	$125,800	$41,700
Median gross rent	$915	$758
Housing units	881	114
Homeownership rate	79.9%	90.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.5%	11.8%
Unemployment rate	17.8%	20.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Alta	Marathon
Population	2,039 → 2,344 (+15.0%)	207 → 199 (-3.9%)
Median household income	$59,000 → $66,118 (+12.1%)	$48,750 → $40,417 (-17.1%)
Median home value	$111,000 → $125,800 (+13.3%)	$31,300 → $41,700 (+33.2%)
Median gross rent	$744 → $915 (+23.0%)	$675 → $758 (+12.3%)

Alta

Population

2,0392,344

Median household income

$59,000$66,118

Median home value

$111,000$125,800

Median gross rent

$744$915

Marathon

Population

207199

Median household income

$48,750$40,417

Median home value

$31,300$41,700

Median gross rent

$675$758

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Alta	Marathon
Under 5	6.3%	2.0%
5 to 17	24.2%	21.1%
18 to 24	5.1%	0.5%
25 to 34	10.0%	6.5%
35 to 44	14.5%	6.5%
45 to 54	14.4%	12.1%
55 to 64	14.4%	24.6%
65 to 74	4.7%	21.1%
75 and over	6.4%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Alta	Marathon
White (non-Hispanic)	56.3%	83.9%
Black or African American	7.4%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	12.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	2.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.4%	10.1%
Hispanic or Latino	20.3%	6.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Alta	Marathon
No high school diploma	11.5%	13.8%
High school graduate	41.6%	40.1%
Some college or associate's	26.4%	34.2%
Bachelor's degree	15.1%	7.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.4%	4.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Alta	Marathon
Drove alone	76.6%	92.5%
Carpooled	17.3%	1.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.9%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.5%	2.5%
Other means	0.8%	3.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Alta	Marathon
1-unit, detached	79.0%	94.7%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	2.6%	5.3%
5 to 19 units	3.6%	0.0%
20 or more units	5.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	8.2%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Alta	Marathon
Poverty rate	7.4%	18.6%
Average household size	2.94	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	14	29
Median year structure built	1962	1938