Pine City vs Willow River

A side-by-side comparison of Pine City and Willow River: population, income, housing, and more.

Pine City and Willow River are places in Minnesota. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Pine City has the higher population (3,339 vs 351 in Willow River). Willow River has the higher median household income ($52,188 vs $51,654 in Pine City). Willow River has the higher median home value ($197,700 vs $181,800 in Pine City).

Population, income & housing

	Pine City	Willow River
Population	3,339	351
Median age	40.9 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$51,654	$52,188
Median home value	$181,800	$197,700
Median gross rent	$676	$758
Housing units	1,790	177
Homeownership rate	63.4%	65.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.1%	9.2%
Unemployment rate	7.8%	9.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Pine City	Willow River
Population	3,100 → 3,339 (+7.7%)	457 → 351 (-23.2%)
Median household income	$41,292 → $51,654 (+25.1%)	$40,250 → $52,188 (+29.7%)
Median home value	$148,300 → $181,800 (+22.6%)	$123,500 → $197,700 (+60.1%)
Median gross rent	$725 → $676 (-6.8%)	$740 → $758 (+2.4%)

Pine City

Population

3,1003,339

Median household income

$41,292$51,654

Median home value

$148,300$181,800

Median gross rent

$725$676

Willow River

Population

457351

Median household income

$40,250$52,188

Median home value

$123,500$197,700

Median gross rent

$740$758

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Pine City	Willow River
Under 5	4.3%	2.8%
5 to 17	15.7%	14.8%
18 to 24	6.8%	11.4%
25 to 34	16.4%	19.7%
35 to 44	11.0%	12.3%
45 to 54	7.9%	11.1%
55 to 64	15.9%	5.7%
65 to 74	10.4%	14.5%
75 and over	11.5%	7.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Pine City	Willow River
White (non-Hispanic)	95.1%	98.3%
Black or African American	0.4%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.2%	1.7%
Hispanic or Latino	1.0%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Pine City	Willow River
No high school diploma	9.2%	2.8%
High school graduate	34.0%	49.0%
Some college or associate's	40.7%	39.0%
Bachelor's degree	10.4%	8.8%
Graduate or professional degree	5.6%	0.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Pine City	Willow River
Drove alone	76.9%	69.6%
Carpooled	11.7%	19.0%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	6.5%	1.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.8%	8.9%
Other means	0.0%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Pine City	Willow River
1-unit, detached	64.1%	79.7%
1-unit, attached	3.5%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	6.9%	13.6%
5 to 19 units	10.3%	0.0%
20 or more units	12.1%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.1%	6.8%

Poverty & households

	Pine City	Willow River
Poverty rate	12.1%	8.3%
Average household size	2.03	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	28	41
Median year structure built	1975	1992