Heron Lake vs Lakefield

A side-by-side comparison of Heron Lake and Lakefield: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lakefield has the higher population (1,652 vs 591 in Heron Lake). Heron Lake has the higher median household income ($66,607 vs $62,656 in Lakefield). Lakefield has the higher median home value ($115,900 vs $86,200 in Heron Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
Population	591	1,652
Median age	40.4 yrs	43.9 yrs
Median household income	$66,607	$62,656
Median home value	$86,200	$115,900
Median gross rent	$681	$867
Housing units	295	822
Homeownership rate	85.3%	87.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	17.1%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	0.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
Population	750 → 591 (-21.2%)	1,763 → 1,652 (-6.3%)
Median household income	$57,500 → $66,607 (+15.8%)	$51,944 → $62,656 (+20.6%)
Median home value	$73,900 → $86,200 (+16.6%)	$93,000 → $115,900 (+24.6%)
Median gross rent	$625 → $681 (+9.0%)	$774 → $867 (+12.0%)

Heron Lake

Population

750591

Median household income

$57,500$66,607

Median home value

$73,900$86,200

Median gross rent

$625$681

Lakefield

Population

1,7631,652

Median household income

$51,944$62,656

Median home value

$93,000$115,900

Median gross rent

$774$867

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
Under 5	3.7%	3.9%
5 to 17	16.1%	18.8%
18 to 24	7.1%	5.7%
25 to 34	11.8%	9.2%
35 to 44	14.6%	14.8%
45 to 54	6.4%	10.0%
55 to 64	13.9%	9.6%
65 to 74	11.8%	12.5%
75 and over	14.6%	15.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	72.8%	91.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.5%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	8.0%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	17.6%	3.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
No high school diploma	6.7%	9.1%
High school graduate	35.6%	32.6%
Some college or associate's	37.7%	41.2%
Bachelor's degree	14.8%	13.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	3.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
Drove alone	72.2%	73.0%
Carpooled	12.5%	11.1%
Public transit	0.0%	1.3%
Walked	10.3%	3.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.1%	10.4%
Other means	1.9%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
1-unit, detached	94.6%	89.8%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	2.6%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	3.6%
5 to 19 units	1.0%	1.7%
20 or more units	1.7%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	2.7%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Heron Lake	Lakefield
Poverty rate	8.0%	9.8%
Average household size	2.17	2.16
Mean commute (minutes)	18	17
Median year structure built	1948	1956