Forest City vs Rake

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

Forest City and Rake 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 199 in Rake). Forest City has the higher median household income ($62,917 vs $41,071 in Rake). Forest City has the higher median home value ($136,400 vs $34,200 in Rake).

Population, income & housing

	Forest City	Rake
Population	4,280	199
Median age	32.0 yrs	49.1 yrs
Median household income	$62,917	$41,071
Median home value	$136,400	$34,200
Median gross rent	$719	$792
Housing units	1,780	101
Homeownership rate	72.3%	84.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.0%	20.8%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest City	Rake
Population	3,928 → 4,280 (+9.0%)	161 → 199 (+23.6%)
Median household income	$49,022 → $62,917 (+28.3%)	$36,250 → $41,071 (+13.3%)
Median home value	$95,300 → $136,400 (+43.1%)	$29,300 → $34,200 (+16.7%)
Median gross rent	$579 → $719 (+24.2%)	$675 → $792 (+17.3%)

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

Rake

Population

161199

Median household income

$36,250$41,071

Median home value

$29,300$34,200

Median gross rent

$675$792

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest City	Rake
Under 5	5.1%	4.0%
5 to 17	19.4%	20.1%
18 to 24	17.3%	3.5%
25 to 34	10.7%	9.0%
35 to 44	16.5%	4.5%
45 to 54	7.4%	19.6%
55 to 64	8.5%	12.1%
65 to 74	10.0%	7.0%
75 and over	5.1%	20.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest City	Rake
White (non-Hispanic)	86.4%	95.0%
Black or African American	1.3%	1.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	7.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.9%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	3.3%	4.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest City	Rake
No high school diploma	6.7%	6.9%
High school graduate	25.3%	43.1%
Some college or associate's	42.0%	29.2%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	19.4%
Graduate or professional degree	10.3%	1.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest City	Rake
Drove alone	78.7%	73.4%
Carpooled	9.6%	17.2%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	3.7%	4.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.0%	4.7%
Other means	2.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest City	Rake
1-unit, detached	74.0%	88.1%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	8.7%	4.0%
5 to 19 units	6.3%	1.0%
20 or more units	4.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	5.3%	2.0%

Poverty & households

	Forest City	Rake
Poverty rate	9.4%	22.6%
Average household size	2.41	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	13	22
Median year structure built	1968	1938