Lake Mills vs Scarville

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

Lake Mills and Scarville 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 61 in Scarville). Lake Mills has the higher median home value ($127,100 vs $51,700 in Scarville). Since 2019, Lake Mills's population has grown faster (-0.6% vs -1.6%).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Mills	Scarville
Population	2,054	61
Median age	43.8 yrs	42.8 yrs
Median household income	$70,333	—
Median home value	$127,100	$51,700
Median gross rent	$615	—
Housing units	999	36
Homeownership rate	67.1%	51.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.3%	43.6%
Unemployment rate	2.9%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Mills	Scarville
Population	2,067 → 2,054 (-0.6%)	62 → 61 (-1.6%)
Median household income	$48,542 → $70,333 (+44.9%)	$56,250 → $41,250 (-26.7%)
Median home value	$101,600 → $127,100 (+25.1%)	$36,900 → $51,700 (+40.1%)
Median gross rent	$616 → $615 (-0.2%)	—

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

Scarville

Population

6261

Median household income

$56,250$41,250

Median home value

$36,900$51,700

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake Mills	Scarville
Under 5	3.7%	4.9%
5 to 17	16.9%	13.1%
18 to 24	6.4%	18.0%
25 to 34	15.3%	4.9%
35 to 44	9.4%	9.8%
45 to 54	10.0%	1.6%
55 to 64	14.5%	26.2%
65 to 74	8.5%	13.1%
75 and over	15.3%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Mills	Scarville
White (non-Hispanic)	90.2%	77.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.6%
Two or more races	0.6%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	21.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Mills	Scarville
No high school diploma	5.1%	10.3%
High school graduate	40.1%	30.8%
Some college or associate's	37.6%	15.4%
Bachelor's degree	12.1%	23.1%
Graduate or professional degree	5.2%	20.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Mills	Scarville
Drove alone	87.4%	73.9%
Carpooled	6.1%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.2%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	13.0%
Worked from home	3.8%	13.0%
Other means	0.5%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Mills	Scarville
1-unit, detached	81.3%	97.2%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	7.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	9.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	1.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	2.8%

Poverty & households

	Lake Mills	Scarville
Poverty rate	15.9%	23.0%
Average household size	2.15	1.85
Mean commute (minutes)	16	—
Median year structure built	1965	1938