Bear Lake vs Rapid City

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

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

Rapid City has the higher population (1,315 vs 245 in Bear Lake). Rapid City has the higher median household income ($65,438 vs $53,750 in Bear Lake). Rapid City has the higher median home value ($212,500 vs $143,100 in Bear Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
Population	245	1,315
Median age	70.1 yrs	51.6 yrs
Median household income	$53,750	$65,438
Median home value	$143,100	$212,500
Median gross rent	—	$987
Housing units	603	892
Homeownership rate	93.8%	86.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.2%	13.0%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	8.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
Population	368 → 245 (-33.4%)	1,493 → 1,315 (-11.9%)
Median household income	$48,125 → $53,750 (+11.7%)	$50,952 → $65,438 (+28.4%)
Median home value	$116,900 → $143,100 (+22.4%)	$138,400 → $212,500 (+53.5%)
Median gross rent	—	$729 → $987 (+35.4%)

Bear Lake

Population

368245

Median household income

$48,125$53,750

Median home value

$116,900$143,100

Rapid City

Population

1,4931,315

Median household income

$50,952$65,438

Median home value

$138,400$212,500

Median gross rent

$729$987

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
Under 5	2.4%	2.7%
5 to 17	2.0%	14.5%
18 to 24	0.0%	3.7%
25 to 34	9.8%	7.1%
35 to 44	7.3%	11.3%
45 to 54	4.5%	12.3%
55 to 64	11.8%	16.5%
65 to 74	35.5%	20.8%
75 and over	26.5%	11.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
White (non-Hispanic)	93.1%	96.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.9%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
No high school diploma	2.1%	5.4%
High school graduate	35.0%	44.3%
Some college or associate's	37.6%	37.4%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	5.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.5%	7.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
Drove alone	98.2%	92.1%
Carpooled	1.8%	4.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	3.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
1-unit, detached	85.7%	81.6%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	14.3%	17.9%

Poverty & households

	Bear Lake	Rapid City
Poverty rate	9.8%	13.8%
Average household size	1.68	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	22	25
Median year structure built	1980	1980