Bear Lake vs Onekama

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

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

Onekama has the higher population (323 vs 265 in Bear Lake). Onekama has the higher median home value ($182,300 vs $126,400 in Bear Lake). Since 2019, Bear Lake's population has grown faster (+30.5% vs -29.9%).

Population, income & housing

	Bear Lake	Onekama
Population	265	323
Median age	43.5 yrs	59.8 yrs
Median household income	$54,886	—
Median home value	$126,400	$182,300
Median gross rent	$1,000	$575
Housing units	148	286
Homeownership rate	94.1%	88.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.6%	23.7%
Unemployment rate	7.4%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bear Lake	Onekama
Population	203 → 265 (+30.5%)	461 → 323 (-29.9%)
Median household income	$36,250 → $54,886 (+51.4%)	$71,250 → $50,417 (-29.2%)
Median home value	$95,500 → $126,400 (+32.4%)	$150,000 → $182,300 (+21.5%)
Median gross rent	$696 → $1,000 (+43.7%)	$575 → $575 (+0.0%)

Bear Lake

Population

203265

Median household income

$36,250$54,886

Median home value

$95,500$126,400

Median gross rent

$696$1,000

Onekama

Population

461323

Median household income

$71,250$50,417

Median home value

$150,000$182,300

Median gross rent

$575$575

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bear Lake	Onekama
Under 5	3.0%	2.2%
5 to 17	12.5%	17.3%
18 to 24	17.0%	2.2%
25 to 34	10.9%	9.0%
35 to 44	14.7%	1.2%
45 to 54	6.0%	12.7%
55 to 64	15.1%	15.8%
65 to 74	12.5%	31.3%
75 and over	8.3%	8.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bear Lake	Onekama
White (non-Hispanic)	90.2%	93.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	4.5%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.4%	5.9%
Hispanic or Latino	1.9%	0.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bear Lake	Onekama
No high school diploma	12.3%	0.0%
High school graduate	42.5%	20.2%
Some college or associate's	25.7%	56.1%
Bachelor's degree	13.4%	18.6%
Graduate or professional degree	6.1%	5.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bear Lake	Onekama
Drove alone	61.5%	73.1%
Carpooled	36.3%	22.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.7%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	1.5%	4.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bear Lake	Onekama
1-unit, detached	88.5%	93.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	4.1%	2.8%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	3.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	7.4%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	Bear Lake	Onekama
Poverty rate	4.9%	1.9%
Average household size	2.62	1.92
Mean commute (minutes)	25	26
Median year structure built	1947	1958