Lake City vs Rockwell City

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

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

Rockwell City has the higher population (2,449 vs 1,652 in Lake City). Lake City has the higher median household income ($64,375 vs $61,563 in Rockwell City). Lake City has the higher median home value ($103,300 vs $91,300 in Rockwell City).

Population, income & housing

	Lake City	Rockwell City
Population	1,652	2,449
Median age	46.9 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$64,375	$61,563
Median home value	$103,300	$91,300
Median gross rent	$761	$797
Housing units	739	876
Homeownership rate	75.2%	74.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.1%	14.0%
Unemployment rate	1.8%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake City	Rockwell City
Population	1,764 → 1,652 (-6.3%)	2,258 → 2,449 (+8.5%)
Median household income	$46,853 → $64,375 (+37.4%)	$46,023 → $61,563 (+33.8%)
Median home value	$81,200 → $103,300 (+27.2%)	$62,900 → $91,300 (+45.2%)
Median gross rent	$595 → $761 (+27.9%)	$608 → $797 (+31.1%)

Lake City

Population

1,7641,652

Median household income

$46,853$64,375

Median home value

$81,200$103,300

Median gross rent

$595$761

Rockwell City

Population

2,2582,449

Median household income

$46,023$61,563

Median home value

$62,900$91,300

Median gross rent

$608$797

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake City	Rockwell City
Under 5	7.0%	3.1%
5 to 17	12.7%	17.4%
18 to 24	4.4%	3.8%
25 to 34	15.7%	14.7%
35 to 44	9.0%	19.6%
45 to 54	9.7%	10.6%
55 to 64	14.8%	11.1%
65 to 74	13.7%	9.8%
75 and over	13.1%	9.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake City	Rockwell City
White (non-Hispanic)	88.5%	85.8%
Black or African American	0.1%	4.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	0.1%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.5%
Two or more races	7.3%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	3.9%	4.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake City	Rockwell City
No high school diploma	6.0%	10.0%
High school graduate	38.6%	42.7%
Some college or associate's	34.3%	33.3%
Bachelor's degree	13.9%	10.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.2%	3.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake City	Rockwell City
Drove alone	78.9%	67.4%
Carpooled	10.7%	22.4%
Public transit	1.2%	0.0%
Walked	5.0%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	2.6%
Worked from home	3.8%	3.8%
Other means	0.3%	2.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake City	Rockwell City
1-unit, detached	84.2%	83.2%
1-unit, attached	0.8%	1.5%
2 to 4 units	2.4%	1.1%
5 to 19 units	8.5%	3.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	6.4%
Mobile home & other	4.1%	4.3%

Poverty & households

	Lake City	Rockwell City
Poverty rate	13.2%	7.5%
Average household size	2.38	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	16	21
Median year structure built	1956	1958