Bear Lake vs Kalkaska

A side-by-side comparison of Bear Lake and Kalkaska: population, income, housing, and more.

Bear Lake and Kalkaska are places in Michigan. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Kalkaska has the higher population (2,370 vs 245 in Bear Lake). Bear Lake has the higher median household income ($53,750 vs $42,955 in Kalkaska). Bear Lake has the higher median home value ($143,100 vs $121,300 in Kalkaska).

Population, income & housing

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
Population	245	2,370
Median age	70.1 yrs	40.1 yrs
Median household income	$53,750	$42,955
Median home value	$143,100	$121,300
Median gross rent	—	$644
Housing units	603	1,103
Homeownership rate	93.8%	60.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.2%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
Population	368 → 245 (-33.4%)	2,076 → 2,370 (+14.2%)
Median household income	$48,125 → $53,750 (+11.7%)	$35,789 → $42,955 (+20.0%)
Median home value	$116,900 → $143,100 (+22.4%)	$83,700 → $121,300 (+44.9%)
Median gross rent	—	$609 → $644 (+5.7%)

Bear Lake

Population

368245

Median household income

$48,125$53,750

Median home value

$116,900$143,100

Kalkaska

Population

2,0762,370

Median household income

$35,789$42,955

Median home value

$83,700$121,300

Median gross rent

$609$644

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
Under 5	2.4%	6.0%
5 to 17	2.0%	17.6%
18 to 24	0.0%	6.6%
25 to 34	9.8%	13.0%
35 to 44	7.3%	15.0%
45 to 54	4.5%	9.8%
55 to 64	11.8%	12.7%
65 to 74	35.5%	8.8%
75 and over	26.5%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
White (non-Hispanic)	93.1%	87.5%
Black or African American	0.0%	3.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.4%	0.2%
Asian	0.0%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.9%	6.9%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	1.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
No high school diploma	2.1%	16.3%
High school graduate	35.0%	37.9%
Some college or associate's	37.6%	27.3%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	11.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.5%	7.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
Drove alone	98.2%	84.6%
Carpooled	1.8%	9.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	1.3%
Other means	0.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
1-unit, detached	85.7%	59.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	4.4%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	23.7%
20 or more units	0.0%	5.0%
Mobile home & other	14.3%	6.5%

Poverty & households

	Bear Lake	Kalkaska
Poverty rate	9.8%	20.2%
Average household size	1.68	2.18
Mean commute (minutes)	22	21
Median year structure built	1980	1972