Forest City vs Lake Mills

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

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

Forest City has the higher population (4,280 vs 2,054 in Lake Mills). Lake Mills has the higher median household income ($70,333 vs $62,917 in Forest City). Forest City has the higher median home value ($136,400 vs $127,100 in Lake Mills).

Population, income & housing

	Forest City	Lake Mills
Population	4,280	2,054
Median age	32.0 yrs	43.8 yrs
Median household income	$62,917	$70,333
Median home value	$136,400	$127,100
Median gross rent	$719	$615
Housing units	1,780	999
Homeownership rate	72.3%	67.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	17.3%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest City	Lake Mills
Population	3,928 → 4,280 (+9.0%)	2,067 → 2,054 (-0.6%)
Median household income	$49,022 → $62,917 (+28.3%)	$48,542 → $70,333 (+44.9%)
Median home value	$95,300 → $136,400 (+43.1%)	$101,600 → $127,100 (+25.1%)
Median gross rent	$579 → $719 (+24.2%)	$616 → $615 (-0.2%)

Forest City

Population

3,9284,280

Median household income

$49,022$62,917

Median home value

$95,300$136,400

Median gross rent

$579$719

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)

	Forest City	Lake Mills
Under 5	5.1%	3.7%
5 to 17	19.4%	16.9%
18 to 24	17.3%	6.4%
25 to 34	10.7%	15.3%
35 to 44	16.5%	9.4%
45 to 54	7.4%	10.0%
55 to 64	8.5%	14.5%
65 to 74	10.0%	8.5%
75 and over	5.1%	15.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest City	Lake Mills
White (non-Hispanic)	86.4%	90.2%
Black or African American	1.3%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	7.5%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.9%	0.6%
Hispanic or Latino	3.3%	9.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest City	Lake Mills
No high school diploma	6.7%	5.1%
High school graduate	25.3%	40.1%
Some college or associate's	42.0%	37.6%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	12.1%
Graduate or professional degree	10.3%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest City	Lake Mills
Drove alone	78.7%	87.4%
Carpooled	9.6%	6.1%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	3.7%	2.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.0%	3.8%
Other means	2.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest City	Lake Mills
1-unit, detached	74.0%	81.3%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	8.7%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	6.3%	9.0%
20 or more units	4.3%	1.4%
Mobile home & other	5.3%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Forest City	Lake Mills
Poverty rate	9.4%	15.9%
Average household size	2.41	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	13	16
Median year structure built	1968	1965