Clear Lake vs Thornton

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

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

Clear Lake has the higher population (7,603 vs 534 in Thornton). Clear Lake has the higher median household income ($70,278 vs $66,979 in Thornton). Clear Lake has the higher median home value ($235,100 vs $99,000 in Thornton).

Population, income & housing

	Clear Lake	Thornton
Population	7,603	534
Median age	49.2 yrs	34.3 yrs
Median household income	$70,278	$66,979
Median home value	$235,100	$99,000
Median gross rent	$755	$775
Housing units	4,499	246
Homeownership rate	74.9%	86.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.7%	19.9%
Unemployment rate	2.2%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clear Lake	Thornton
Population	7,597 → 7,603 (+0.1%)	411 → 534 (+29.9%)
Median household income	$57,841 → $70,278 (+21.5%)	$48,542 → $66,979 (+38.0%)
Median home value	$156,000 → $235,100 (+50.7%)	$69,600 → $99,000 (+42.2%)
Median gross rent	$623 → $755 (+21.2%)	$541 → $775 (+43.3%)

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

Thornton

Population

411534

Median household income

$48,542$66,979

Median home value

$69,600$99,000

Median gross rent

$541$775

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clear Lake	Thornton
Under 5	4.2%	8.8%
5 to 17	13.9%	13.5%
18 to 24	7.5%	10.9%
25 to 34	7.7%	18.5%
35 to 44	12.1%	10.1%
45 to 54	10.7%	7.1%
55 to 64	17.2%	11.0%
65 to 74	17.3%	5.2%
75 and over	9.4%	14.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clear Lake	Thornton
White (non-Hispanic)	92.9%	90.6%
Black or African American	0.2%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.3%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	1.0%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	3.6%	7.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clear Lake	Thornton
No high school diploma	3.5%	4.8%
High school graduate	32.2%	31.9%
Some college or associate's	34.7%	43.4%
Bachelor's degree	18.8%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	10.8%	3.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clear Lake	Thornton
Drove alone	79.2%	72.4%
Carpooled	6.1%	15.3%
Public transit	0.6%	0.0%
Walked	1.9%	5.6%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.0%	5.6%
Other means	0.9%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clear Lake	Thornton
1-unit, detached	60.1%	92.7%
1-unit, attached	1.4%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	5.3%
5 to 19 units	16.2%	0.0%
20 or more units	7.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	9.1%	2.0%

Poverty & households

	Clear Lake	Thornton
Poverty rate	7.3%	6.6%
Average household size	2.16	2.27
Mean commute (minutes)	19	24
Median year structure built	1973	1955