Big Bear City vs Lake Arrowhead

A side-by-side comparison of Big Bear City and Lake Arrowhead: population, income, housing, and more.

Big Bear City and Lake Arrowhead are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Big Bear City has the higher population (12,493 vs 10,746 in Lake Arrowhead). Lake Arrowhead has the higher median household income ($88,147 vs $72,457 in Big Bear City). Lake Arrowhead has the higher median home value ($545,100 vs $427,700 in Big Bear City).

Population, income & housing

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
Population	12,493	10,746
Median age	44.3 yrs	48.4 yrs
Median household income	$72,457	$88,147
Median home value	$427,700	$545,100
Median gross rent	$1,454	$1,739
Housing units	12,489	11,742
Homeownership rate	71.9%	82.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	28.4%	36.3%
Unemployment rate	8.0%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
Population	13,463 → 12,493 (-7.2%)	8,940 → 10,746 (+20.2%)
Median household income	$51,875 → $72,457 (+39.7%)	$61,732 → $88,147 (+42.8%)
Median home value	$257,200 → $427,700 (+66.3%)	$373,700 → $545,100 (+45.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,113 → $1,454 (+30.6%)	$1,123 → $1,739 (+54.9%)

Big Bear City

Population

13,46312,493

Median household income

$51,875$72,457

Median home value

$257,200$427,700

Median gross rent

$1,113$1,454

Lake Arrowhead

Population

8,94010,746

Median household income

$61,732$88,147

Median home value

$373,700$545,100

Median gross rent

$1,123$1,739

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
Under 5	7.1%	2.8%
5 to 17	14.2%	15.5%
18 to 24	8.4%	8.4%
25 to 34	8.9%	8.5%
35 to 44	12.4%	10.7%
45 to 54	10.5%	12.7%
55 to 64	17.1%	17.6%
65 to 74	13.9%	16.5%
75 and over	7.5%	7.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
White (non-Hispanic)	69.9%	64.0%
Black or African American	0.9%	1.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.8%
Asian	0.9%	3.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.7%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.6%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	23.6%	25.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
No high school diploma	8.2%	4.4%
High school graduate	26.6%	20.7%
Some college or associate's	36.8%	38.5%
Bachelor's degree	20.4%	21.0%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	15.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
Drove alone	72.3%	74.1%
Carpooled	7.3%	3.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.9%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	15.4%	20.6%
Other means	1.1%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
1-unit, detached	94.4%	91.2%
1-unit, attached	0.6%	1.9%
2 to 4 units	1.1%	1.9%
5 to 19 units	0.2%	1.1%
20 or more units	0.2%	1.8%
Mobile home & other	3.4%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Big Bear City	Lake Arrowhead
Poverty rate	15.3%	11.9%
Average household size	2.35	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	26	38
Median year structure built	1978	1977