Elbow Lake vs Wendell

A side-by-side comparison of Elbow Lake and Wendell: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Elbow Lake has the higher population (1,158 vs 177 in Wendell). Wendell has the higher median household income ($68,125 vs $56,786 in Elbow Lake). Elbow Lake has the higher median home value ($118,900 vs $71,300 in Wendell).

Population, income & housing

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
Population	1,158	177
Median age	38.2 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$56,786	$68,125
Median home value	$118,900	$71,300
Median gross rent	$746	$741
Housing units	524	79
Homeownership rate	66.8%	83.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.0%	14.2%
Unemployment rate	4.8%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
Population	1,267 → 1,158 (-8.6%)	115 → 177 (+53.9%)
Median household income	$57,746 → $56,786 (-1.7%)	$37,222 → $68,125 (+83.0%)
Median home value	$80,400 → $118,900 (+47.9%)	$50,600 → $71,300 (+40.9%)
Median gross rent	$768 → $746 (-2.9%)	$685 → $741 (+8.2%)

Elbow Lake

Population

1,2671,158

Median household income

$57,746$56,786

Median home value

$80,400$118,900

Median gross rent

$768$746

Wendell

Population

115177

Median household income

$37,222$68,125

Median home value

$50,600$71,300

Median gross rent

$685$741

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
Under 5	8.0%	10.2%
5 to 17	20.2%	13.6%
18 to 24	4.7%	4.5%
25 to 34	14.9%	13.6%
35 to 44	10.7%	16.4%
45 to 54	6.9%	7.9%
55 to 64	15.9%	11.3%
65 to 74	11.9%	10.7%
75 and over	6.7%	11.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
White (non-Hispanic)	93.9%	80.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.6%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	2.8%
Two or more races	5.0%	1.1%
Hispanic or Latino	0.6%	14.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
No high school diploma	6.2%	2.4%
High school graduate	26.4%	55.9%
Some college or associate's	47.4%	27.6%
Bachelor's degree	14.2%	11.8%
Graduate or professional degree	5.8%	2.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
Drove alone	84.7%	81.7%
Carpooled	7.1%	1.1%
Public transit	0.2%	0.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.3%	14.0%
Other means	2.0%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
1-unit, detached	74.4%	83.5%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	1.3%
2 to 4 units	3.4%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	14.3%	0.0%
20 or more units	3.8%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.3%	15.2%

Poverty & households

	Elbow Lake	Wendell
Poverty rate	17.6%	23.2%
Average household size	2.39	2.24
Mean commute (minutes)	21	21
Median year structure built	1958	1956