Challis vs Lost River

A side-by-side comparison of Challis and Lost River: population, income, housing, and more.

Challis and Lost River are places in Idaho. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Challis has the higher population (794 vs 51 in Lost River).

Population, income & housing

	Challis	Lost River
Population	794	51
Median age	44.9 yrs	76.1 yrs
Median household income	$50,034	—
Median home value	$168,300	—
Median gross rent	$635	—
Housing units	585	46
Homeownership rate	56.2%	100.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.9%	23.4%
Unemployment rate	1.4%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Challis	Lost River
Population	758 → 794 (+4.7%)	0 → 51 (+0.0%)
Median household income	$25,956 → $50,034 (+92.8%)	—
Median home value	$139,200 → $168,300 (+20.9%)	—
Median gross rent	$529 → $635 (+20.0%)	—

Challis

Population

758794

Median household income

$25,956$50,034

Median home value

$139,200$168,300

Median gross rent

$529$635

Lost River

Population

051

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Challis	Lost River
Under 5	4.0%	0.0%
5 to 17	14.1%	0.0%
18 to 24	8.3%	7.8%
25 to 34	9.4%	0.0%
35 to 44	14.5%	5.9%
45 to 54	19.6%	0.0%
55 to 64	12.6%	0.0%
65 to 74	14.9%	35.3%
75 and over	2.5%	51.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Challis	Lost River
White (non-Hispanic)	80.9%	82.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	11.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.1%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	2.6%	0.0%
Two or more races	6.3%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	8.1%	5.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Challis	Lost River
No high school diploma	9.2%	6.4%
High school graduate	25.3%	40.4%
Some college or associate's	42.5%	29.8%
Bachelor's degree	20.9%	0.0%
Graduate or professional degree	2.1%	23.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Challis	Lost River
Drove alone	46.4%	0.0%
Carpooled	35.3%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.9%	56.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	44.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Challis	Lost River
1-unit, detached	53.8%	78.3%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	9.6%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	6.7%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	29.9%	21.7%

Poverty & households

	Challis	Lost River
Poverty rate	15.2%	0.0%
Average household size	1.97	2.27
Mean commute (minutes)	11	—
Median year structure built	1981	1946