Bear Lake vs Manistee Lake

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

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

Manistee Lake has the higher population (364 vs 245 in Bear Lake). Bear Lake has the higher median household income ($53,750 vs $52,917 in Manistee Lake). Manistee Lake has the higher median home value ($153,600 vs $143,100 in Bear Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
Population	245	364
Median age	70.1 yrs	55.7 yrs
Median household income	$53,750	$52,917
Median home value	$143,100	$153,600
Housing units	603	508
Homeownership rate	93.8%	87.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.2%	23.9%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
Population	368 → 245 (-33.4%)	489 → 364 (-25.6%)
Median household income	$48,125 → $53,750 (+11.7%)	$41,481 → $52,917 (+27.6%)
Median home value	$116,900 → $143,100 (+22.4%)	$117,600 → $153,600 (+30.6%)
Median gross rent	—	$848 → $785 (-7.4%)

Bear Lake

Population

368245

Median household income

$48,125$53,750

Median home value

$116,900$143,100

Manistee Lake

Population

489364

Median household income

$41,481$52,917

Median home value

$117,600$153,600

Median gross rent

$848$785

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
Under 5	2.4%	1.1%
5 to 17	2.0%	7.1%
18 to 24	0.0%	10.2%
25 to 34	9.8%	6.0%
35 to 44	7.3%	4.4%
45 to 54	4.5%	20.6%
55 to 64	11.8%	23.9%
65 to 74	35.5%	19.8%
75 and over	26.5%	6.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	93.1%	98.6%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.4%	0.0%
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%	0.8%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
No high school diploma	2.1%	11.8%
High school graduate	35.0%	34.0%
Some college or associate's	37.6%	30.3%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	18.5%
Graduate or professional degree	8.5%	5.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
Drove alone	98.2%	87.7%
Carpooled	1.8%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	12.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
1-unit, detached	85.7%	84.6%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	1.2%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	14.3%	14.2%

Poverty & households

	Bear Lake	Manistee Lake
Poverty rate	9.8%	14.0%
Average household size	1.68	1.85
Mean commute (minutes)	22	62
Median year structure built	1980	1976