Goose Lake vs Lost Nation

A side-by-side comparison of Goose Lake and Lost Nation: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lost Nation has the higher population (393 vs 309 in Goose Lake). Goose Lake has the higher median household income ($70,625 vs $51,000 in Lost Nation). Goose Lake has the higher median home value ($125,000 vs $74,500 in Lost Nation).

Population, income & housing

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
Population	309	393
Median age	30.8 yrs	44.3 yrs
Median household income	$70,625	$51,000
Median home value	$125,000	$74,500
Median gross rent	—	$658
Housing units	104	208
Homeownership rate	94.6%	66.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.0%	18.1%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
Population	207 → 309 (+49.3%)	461 → 393 (-14.8%)
Median household income	$71,250 → $70,625 (-0.9%)	$42,875 → $51,000 (+19.0%)
Median home value	$132,500 → $125,000 (-5.7%)	$65,900 → $74,500 (+13.1%)
Median gross rent	—	$346 → $658 (+90.2%)

Goose Lake

Population

207309

Median household income

$71,250$70,625

Median home value

$132,500$125,000

Lost Nation

Population

461393

Median household income

$42,875$51,000

Median home value

$65,900$74,500

Median gross rent

$346$658

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
Under 5	2.6%	5.1%
5 to 17	33.0%	19.3%
18 to 24	7.1%	3.8%
25 to 34	9.4%	12.0%
35 to 44	21.7%	10.7%
45 to 54	5.5%	12.5%
55 to 64	10.7%	9.9%
65 to 74	5.5%	9.4%
75 and over	4.5%	17.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
White (non-Hispanic)	93.2%	95.7%
Black or African American	1.6%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.8%
Two or more races	2.3%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	2.9%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
No high school diploma	23.7%	6.4%
High school graduate	12.4%	36.2%
Some college or associate's	41.8%	39.4%
Bachelor's degree	17.5%	16.0%
Graduate or professional degree	4.5%	2.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
Drove alone	96.9%	93.0%
Carpooled	1.6%	1.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	1.6%	5.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
1-unit, detached	91.3%	84.6%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	3.8%	14.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.8%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Goose Lake	Lost Nation
Poverty rate	20.6%	10.6%
Average household size	3.32	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	22	45
Median year structure built	1962	1938