Big Lake vs Mahtowa

A side-by-side comparison of Big Lake and Mahtowa: population, income, housing, and more.

Big Lake and Mahtowa are places in Minnesota. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Mahtowa has the higher population (365 vs 351 in Big Lake). Mahtowa has the higher median household income ($85,000 vs $84,583 in Big Lake). Big Lake has the higher median home value ($251,000 vs $242,400 in Mahtowa).

Population, income & housing

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
Population	351	365
Median age	39.8 yrs	33.9 yrs
Median household income	$84,583	$85,000
Median home value	$251,000	$242,400
Housing units	208	154
Homeownership rate	88.2%	95.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.4%	26.4%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	11.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
Population	378 → 351 (-7.1%)	358 → 365 (+2.0%)
Median household income	$75,833 → $84,583 (+11.5%)	$74,091 → $85,000 (+14.7%)
Median home value	$200,000 → $251,000 (+25.5%)	$140,300 → $242,400 (+72.8%)
Median gross rent	$104 → $99 (-4.8%)	—

Big Lake

Population

378351

Median household income

$75,833$84,583

Median home value

$200,000$251,000

Median gross rent

$104$99

Mahtowa

Population

358365

Median household income

$74,091$85,000

Median home value

$140,300$242,400

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
Under 5	2.3%	19.7%
5 to 17	17.4%	10.7%
18 to 24	7.4%	5.2%
25 to 34	12.8%	17.3%
35 to 44	17.7%	11.5%
45 to 54	8.0%	8.8%
55 to 64	13.4%	10.1%
65 to 74	17.4%	10.1%
75 and over	3.7%	6.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
White (non-Hispanic)	63.5%	87.9%
Black or African American	0.6%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	28.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.6%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.1%	10.1%
Hispanic or Latino	2.0%	1.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
No high school diploma	6.6%	1.3%
High school graduate	35.5%	36.2%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	36.2%
Bachelor's degree	19.5%	20.4%
Graduate or professional degree	5.9%	6.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
Drove alone	80.8%	80.4%
Carpooled	11.6%	1.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.4%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.5%	14.6%
Other means	0.7%	3.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
1-unit, detached	88.9%	84.4%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	5.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	5.3%	15.6%

Poverty & households

	Big Lake	Mahtowa
Poverty rate	11.4%	4.4%
Average household size	2.60	2.61
Mean commute (minutes)	28	32
Median year structure built	1976	1971