Atwater vs Willmar

A side-by-side comparison of Atwater and Willmar: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Willmar has the higher population (21,136 vs 1,217 in Atwater). Atwater has the higher median household income ($66,071 vs $63,368 in Willmar). Willmar has the higher median home value ($186,000 vs $144,300 in Atwater).

Population, income & housing

	Atwater	Willmar
Population	1,217	21,136
Median age	31.7 yrs	35.6 yrs
Median household income	$66,071	$63,368
Median home value	$144,300	$186,000
Median gross rent	$736	$830
Housing units	451	8,880
Homeownership rate	79.5%	57.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.6%	24.5%
Unemployment rate	7.5%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Atwater	Willmar
Population	1,014 → 1,217 (+20.0%)	19,712 → 21,136 (+7.2%)
Median household income	$54,926 → $66,071 (+20.3%)	$47,826 → $63,368 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$95,100 → $144,300 (+51.7%)	$133,000 → $186,000 (+39.8%)
Median gross rent	$704 → $736 (+4.5%)	$785 → $830 (+5.7%)

Atwater

Population

1,0141,217

Median household income

$54,926$66,071

Median home value

$95,100$144,300

Median gross rent

$704$736

Willmar

Population

19,71221,136

Median household income

$47,826$63,368

Median home value

$133,000$186,000

Median gross rent

$785$830

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Atwater	Willmar
Under 5	5.8%	7.3%
5 to 17	28.1%	18.2%
18 to 24	8.1%	9.2%
25 to 34	9.9%	14.6%
35 to 44	14.1%	11.3%
45 to 54	12.2%	10.3%
55 to 64	11.1%	11.2%
65 to 74	4.9%	10.3%
75 and over	5.8%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Atwater	Willmar
White (non-Hispanic)	87.3%	59.6%
Black or African American	0.5%	10.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.8%
Asian	0.6%	2.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	9.9%	1.5%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	24.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Atwater	Willmar
No high school diploma	2.7%	14.3%
High school graduate	40.2%	29.2%
Some college or associate's	39.5%	32.0%
Bachelor's degree	14.6%	16.6%
Graduate or professional degree	3.0%	7.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Atwater	Willmar
Drove alone	87.2%	75.3%
Carpooled	6.4%	11.7%
Public transit	0.0%	1.9%
Walked	0.5%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.9%
Worked from home	3.7%	7.2%
Other means	2.2%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Atwater	Willmar
1-unit, detached	80.5%	58.1%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	5.8%
2 to 4 units	2.0%	7.5%
5 to 19 units	10.2%	8.8%
20 or more units	0.0%	17.5%
Mobile home & other	5.1%	2.4%

Poverty & households

	Atwater	Willmar
Poverty rate	4.9%	15.2%
Average household size	2.77	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	24	13
Median year structure built	1973	1976