Bear Lake vs Merriam

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

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

Merriam has the higher population (309 vs 118 in Bear Lake). Merriam has the higher median home value ($123,800 vs $65,000 in Bear Lake). Since 2019, Bear Lake's population has grown faster (+1.7% vs -1.9%).

Population, income & housing

	Bear Lake	Merriam
Population	118	309
Median age	59.1 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	—	$44,444
Median home value	$65,000	$123,800
Housing units	125	120
Homeownership rate	100.0%	77.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.4%	27.3%
Unemployment rate	38.0%	24.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bear Lake	Merriam
Population	116 → 118 (+1.7%)	315 → 309 (-1.9%)
Median household income	—	$67,574 → $44,444 (-34.2%)
Median home value	$57,900 → $65,000 (+12.3%)	$181,900 → $123,800 (-31.9%)

Bear Lake

Population

116118

Median home value

$57,900$65,000

Merriam

Population

315309

Median household income

$67,574$44,444

Median home value

$181,900$123,800

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bear Lake	Merriam
Under 5	0.0%	12.6%
5 to 17	0.0%	13.6%
18 to 24	0.0%	2.6%
25 to 34	24.6%	20.7%
35 to 44	0.0%	5.5%
45 to 54	22.9%	1.6%
55 to 64	33.9%	17.8%
65 to 74	7.6%	22.7%
75 and over	11.0%	2.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bear Lake	Merriam
White (non-Hispanic)	92.4%	100.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	7.6%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.0%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bear Lake	Merriam
No high school diploma	11.0%	4.5%
High school graduate	51.7%	58.6%
Some college or associate's	22.9%	9.5%
Bachelor's degree	6.8%	17.7%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	9.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bear Lake	Merriam
Drove alone	47.7%	100.0%
Carpooled	52.3%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bear Lake	Merriam
1-unit, detached	76.0%	92.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	24.0%	7.5%

Poverty & households

	Bear Lake	Merriam
Poverty rate	22.9%	1.9%
Average household size	1.79	2.58
Mean commute (minutes)	—	22
Median year structure built	1954	1961