Lakewood vs Wheat Ridge

A side-by-side comparison of Lakewood and Wheat Ridge: population, income, housing, and more.

Lakewood and Wheat Ridge are places in Colorado. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Lakewood has the higher population (156,309 vs 32,158 in Wheat Ridge). Wheat Ridge has the higher median household income ($87,598 vs $85,789 in Lakewood). Wheat Ridge has the higher median home value ($584,700 vs $548,200 in Lakewood).

Population, income & housing

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
Population	156,309	32,158
Median age	38.0 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$85,789	$87,598
Median home value	$548,200	$584,700
Median gross rent	$1,746	$1,493
Housing units	73,000	15,805
Homeownership rate	58.1%	52.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.3%	44.4%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
Population	155,146 → 156,309 (+0.7%)	31,331 → 32,158 (+2.6%)
Median household income	$66,740 → $85,789 (+28.5%)	$57,659 → $87,598 (+51.9%)
Median home value	$364,800 → $548,200 (+50.3%)	$383,900 → $584,700 (+52.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,361 → $1,746 (+28.3%)	$1,104 → $1,493 (+35.2%)

Lakewood

Population

155,146156,309

Median household income

$66,740$85,789

Median home value

$364,800$548,200

Median gross rent

$1,361$1,746

Wheat Ridge

Population

31,33132,158

Median household income

$57,659$87,598

Median home value

$383,900$584,700

Median gross rent

$1,104$1,493

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
Under 5	4.8%	5.6%
5 to 17	11.7%	10.3%
18 to 24	9.0%	5.0%
25 to 34	19.6%	17.6%
35 to 44	14.2%	15.3%
45 to 54	10.9%	11.5%
55 to 64	12.2%	13.8%
65 to 74	10.1%	10.8%
75 and over	7.6%	10.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
White (non-Hispanic)	68.1%	73.0%
Black or African American	1.3%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.3%
Asian	4.0%	1.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.7%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	22.3%	21.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
No high school diploma	6.4%	5.7%
High school graduate	20.9%	22.2%
Some college or associate's	27.4%	27.6%
Bachelor's degree	29.1%	29.8%
Graduate or professional degree	16.2%	14.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
Drove alone	67.8%	65.0%
Carpooled	6.2%	8.5%
Public transit	2.6%	2.6%
Walked	1.5%	1.9%
Bicycle	0.9%	0.7%
Worked from home	19.9%	19.3%
Other means	1.1%	2.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
1-unit, detached	46.6%	51.6%
1-unit, attached	11.0%	14.1%
2 to 4 units	6.8%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	17.6%	15.6%
20 or more units	16.8%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	1.3%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Lakewood	Wheat Ridge
Poverty rate	9.1%	10.2%
Average household size	2.22	2.09
Mean commute (minutes)	27	24
Median year structure built	1977	1964