Big Bear Lake vs Needles

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

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

Big Bear Lake has the higher population (5,038 vs 4,882 in Needles). Big Bear Lake has the higher median household income ($74,728 vs $39,876 in Needles). Big Bear Lake has the higher median home value ($517,900 vs $134,400 in Needles).

Population, income & housing

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
Population	5,038	4,882
Median age	45.5 yrs	49.6 yrs
Median household income	$74,728	$39,876
Median home value	$517,900	$134,400
Median gross rent	$1,278	$742
Housing units	9,602	2,848
Homeownership rate	67.2%	54.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.9%	9.2%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	12.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
Population	5,241 → 5,038 (-3.9%)	4,965 → 4,882 (-1.7%)
Median household income	$51,060 → $74,728 (+46.4%)	$33,717 → $39,876 (+18.3%)
Median home value	$391,000 → $517,900 (+32.5%)	$88,500 → $134,400 (+51.9%)
Median gross rent	$957 → $1,278 (+33.5%)	$649 → $742 (+14.3%)

Big Bear Lake

Population

5,2415,038

Median household income

$51,060$74,728

Median home value

$391,000$517,900

Median gross rent

$957$1,278

Needles

Population

4,9654,882

Median household income

$33,717$39,876

Median home value

$88,500$134,400

Median gross rent

$649$742

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
Under 5	4.7%	2.9%
5 to 17	14.5%	15.8%
18 to 24	3.9%	6.1%
25 to 34	10.8%	5.4%
35 to 44	15.8%	14.1%
45 to 54	11.1%	9.0%
55 to 64	18.5%	23.6%
65 to 74	14.0%	14.0%
75 and over	6.8%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	54.5%
Black or African American	0.4%	3.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	6.7%
Asian	2.5%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.4%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	25.2%	30.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
No high school diploma	8.7%	21.7%
High school graduate	21.7%	31.7%
Some college or associate's	34.6%	37.5%
Bachelor's degree	21.7%	7.1%
Graduate or professional degree	13.3%	2.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
Drove alone	61.3%	83.3%
Carpooled	12.1%	9.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.0%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	23.8%	5.0%
Other means	0.9%	0.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
1-unit, detached	84.8%	62.1%
1-unit, attached	4.2%	5.1%
2 to 4 units	3.5%	5.5%
5 to 19 units	2.1%	2.2%
20 or more units	2.8%	9.8%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	15.4%

Poverty & households

	Big Bear Lake	Needles
Poverty rate	9.4%	29.1%
Average household size	2.24	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	28	19
Median year structure built	1976	1977