Clear Lake vs Mason City

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

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

Mason City has the higher population (27,135 vs 7,603 in Clear Lake). Clear Lake has the higher median household income ($70,278 vs $62,369 in Mason City). Clear Lake has the higher median home value ($235,100 vs $130,000 in Mason City).

Population, income & housing

	Clear Lake	Mason City
Population	7,603	27,135
Median age	49.2 yrs	43.0 yrs
Median household income	$70,278	$62,369
Median home value	$235,100	$130,000
Median gross rent	$755	$874
Housing units	4,499	14,117
Homeownership rate	74.9%	67.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.7%	21.3%
Unemployment rate	2.2%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clear Lake	Mason City
Population	7,597 → 7,603 (+0.1%)	27,200 → 27,135 (-0.2%)
Median household income	$57,841 → $70,278 (+21.5%)	$50,397 → $62,369 (+23.8%)
Median home value	$156,000 → $235,100 (+50.7%)	$114,900 → $130,000 (+13.1%)
Median gross rent	$623 → $755 (+21.2%)	$723 → $874 (+20.9%)

Clear Lake

Population

7,5977,603

Median household income

$57,841$70,278

Median home value

$156,000$235,100

Median gross rent

$623$755

Mason City

Population

27,20027,135

Median household income

$50,397$62,369

Median home value

$114,900$130,000

Median gross rent

$723$874

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clear Lake	Mason City
Under 5	4.2%	4.9%
5 to 17	13.9%	15.2%
18 to 24	7.5%	8.1%
25 to 34	7.7%	12.6%
35 to 44	12.1%	11.4%
45 to 54	10.7%	11.5%
55 to 64	17.2%	13.6%
65 to 74	17.3%	13.0%
75 and over	9.4%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clear Lake	Mason City
White (non-Hispanic)	92.9%	86.2%
Black or African American	0.2%	2.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	2.3%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.6%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	1.0%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	3.6%	6.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clear Lake	Mason City
No high school diploma	3.5%	6.7%
High school graduate	32.2%	37.9%
Some college or associate's	34.7%	34.0%
Bachelor's degree	18.8%	14.2%
Graduate or professional degree	10.8%	7.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clear Lake	Mason City
Drove alone	79.2%	79.1%
Carpooled	6.1%	10.8%
Public transit	0.6%	0.7%
Walked	1.9%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.4%
Worked from home	11.0%	5.4%
Other means	0.9%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clear Lake	Mason City
1-unit, detached	60.1%	76.2%
1-unit, attached	1.4%	3.5%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	6.4%
5 to 19 units	16.2%	5.3%
20 or more units	7.6%	6.8%
Mobile home & other	9.1%	1.7%

Poverty & households

	Clear Lake	Mason City
Poverty rate	7.3%	10.6%
Average household size	2.16	2.08
Mean commute (minutes)	19	14
Median year structure built	1973	1955