Carter Lake vs Council Bluffs

A side-by-side comparison of Carter Lake and Council Bluffs: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Council Bluffs has the higher population (62,564 vs 3,773 in Carter Lake). Carter Lake has the higher median household income ($75,037 vs $64,092 in Council Bluffs). Council Bluffs has the higher median home value ($164,300 vs $161,200 in Carter Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
Population	3,773	62,564
Median age	40.1 yrs	39.0 yrs
Median household income	$75,037	$64,092
Median home value	$161,200	$164,300
Median gross rent	$1,115	$980
Housing units	1,461	27,576
Homeownership rate	84.3%	64.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	12.9%	21.7%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
Population	3,796 → 3,773 (-0.6%)	62,355 → 62,564 (+0.3%)
Median household income	$58,839 → $75,037 (+27.5%)	$53,524 → $64,092 (+19.7%)
Median home value	$113,900 → $161,200 (+41.5%)	$120,100 → $164,300 (+36.8%)
Median gross rent	$917 → $1,115 (+21.6%)	$848 → $980 (+15.6%)

Carter Lake

Population

3,7963,773

Median household income

$58,839$75,037

Median home value

$113,900$161,200

Median gross rent

$917$1,115

Council Bluffs

Population

62,35562,564

Median household income

$53,524$64,092

Median home value

$120,100$164,300

Median gross rent

$848$980

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
Under 5	5.6%	5.5%
5 to 17	19.7%	16.8%
18 to 24	9.8%	9.5%
25 to 34	10.7%	13.3%
35 to 44	10.8%	13.1%
45 to 54	9.9%	11.5%
55 to 64	18.2%	12.8%
65 to 74	10.9%	11.0%
75 and over	4.3%	6.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
White (non-Hispanic)	75.3%	82.6%
Black or African American	0.6%	2.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.6%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	1.1%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	19.9%	10.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
No high school diploma	9.8%	10.9%
High school graduate	52.6%	34.3%
Some college or associate's	24.8%	33.1%
Bachelor's degree	6.9%	14.5%
Graduate or professional degree	6.0%	7.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
Drove alone	84.5%	80.0%
Carpooled	3.4%	7.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.9%
Walked	1.4%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	10.8%	7.8%
Other means	0.0%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
1-unit, detached	74.3%	68.7%
1-unit, attached	3.8%	2.4%
2 to 4 units	0.7%	5.4%
5 to 19 units	1.3%	11.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	7.9%
Mobile home & other	19.8%	4.1%

Poverty & households

	Carter Lake	Council Bluffs
Poverty rate	15.2%	13.2%
Average household size	2.72	2.34
Mean commute (minutes)	19	19
Median year structure built	1972	1964