Buffalo Center vs Lake Mills

A side-by-side comparison of Buffalo Center and Lake Mills: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lake Mills has the higher population (2,054 vs 1,000 in Buffalo Center). Lake Mills has the higher median household income ($70,333 vs $49,474 in Buffalo Center). Lake Mills has the higher median home value ($127,100 vs $93,800 in Buffalo Center).

Population, income & housing

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
Population	1,000	2,054
Median age	58.2 yrs	43.8 yrs
Median household income	$49,474	$70,333
Median home value	$93,800	$127,100
Median gross rent	$646	$615
Housing units	584	999
Homeownership rate	72.2%	67.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.1%	17.3%
Unemployment rate	9.2%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
Population	901 → 1,000 (+11.0%)	2,067 → 2,054 (-0.6%)
Median household income	$44,655 → $49,474 (+10.8%)	$48,542 → $70,333 (+44.9%)
Median home value	$64,200 → $93,800 (+46.1%)	$101,600 → $127,100 (+25.1%)
Median gross rent	$629 → $646 (+2.7%)	$616 → $615 (-0.2%)

Buffalo Center

Population

9011,000

Median household income

$44,655$49,474

Median home value

$64,200$93,800

Median gross rent

$629$646

Lake Mills

Population

2,0672,054

Median household income

$48,542$70,333

Median home value

$101,600$127,100

Median gross rent

$616$615

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
Under 5	2.5%	3.7%
5 to 17	11.9%	16.9%
18 to 24	7.3%	6.4%
25 to 34	4.9%	15.3%
35 to 44	6.7%	9.4%
45 to 54	12.7%	10.0%
55 to 64	21.7%	14.5%
65 to 74	17.8%	8.5%
75 and over	14.5%	15.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
White (non-Hispanic)	94.3%	90.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.1%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.4%	0.6%
Hispanic or Latino	3.2%	9.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
No high school diploma	2.8%	5.1%
High school graduate	41.6%	40.1%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	37.6%
Bachelor's degree	22.3%	12.1%
Graduate or professional degree	3.7%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
Drove alone	65.6%	87.4%
Carpooled	6.6%	6.1%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	25.6%	2.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.1%	3.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
1-unit, detached	83.0%	81.3%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	12.2%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	4.5%	9.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	1.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Buffalo Center	Lake Mills
Poverty rate	8.3%	15.9%
Average household size	1.92	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	19	16
Median year structure built	1957	1965