Belle Plaine vs Prior Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Belle Plaine and Prior Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Prior Lake has the higher population (27,832 vs 7,401 in Belle Plaine). Prior Lake has the higher median household income ($130,278 vs $96,831 in Belle Plaine). Prior Lake has the higher median home value ($429,900 vs $280,400 in Belle Plaine).

Population, income & housing

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
Population	7,401	27,832
Median age	38.2 yrs	39.7 yrs
Median household income	$96,831	$130,278
Median home value	$280,400	$429,900
Median gross rent	$1,336	$1,548
Housing units	2,696	10,423
Homeownership rate	83.4%	85.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.6%	51.5%
Unemployment rate	0.3%	1.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
Population	7,093 → 7,401 (+4.3%)	26,365 → 27,832 (+5.6%)
Median household income	$79,513 → $96,831 (+21.8%)	$109,604 → $130,278 (+18.9%)
Median home value	$217,400 → $280,400 (+29.0%)	$322,400 → $429,900 (+33.3%)
Median gross rent	$840 → $1,336 (+59.0%)	$1,143 → $1,548 (+35.4%)

Belle Plaine

Population

7,0937,401

Median household income

$79,513$96,831

Median home value

$217,400$280,400

Median gross rent

$840$1,336

Prior Lake

Population

26,36527,832

Median household income

$109,604$130,278

Median home value

$322,400$429,900

Median gross rent

$1,143$1,548

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
Under 5	6.9%	5.9%
5 to 17	21.4%	19.8%
18 to 24	6.7%	8.5%
25 to 34	9.6%	9.8%
35 to 44	15.1%	13.5%
45 to 54	13.5%	14.2%
55 to 64	12.0%	13.5%
65 to 74	5.9%	9.6%
75 and over	8.9%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	91.8%	81.5%
Black or African American	3.6%	1.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	1.5%
Asian	0.0%	5.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.6%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.2%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	0.5%	5.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
No high school diploma	9.9%	3.5%
High school graduate	27.0%	13.7%
Some college or associate's	35.6%	31.3%
Bachelor's degree	21.3%	36.2%
Graduate or professional degree	6.3%	15.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
Drove alone	81.4%	68.1%
Carpooled	9.8%	6.7%
Public transit	0.2%	1.0%
Walked	0.0%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.8%	22.0%
Other means	2.1%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
1-unit, detached	80.5%	71.1%
1-unit, attached	7.0%	17.1%
2 to 4 units	4.6%	1.0%
5 to 19 units	3.0%	1.2%
20 or more units	4.3%	9.5%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Belle Plaine	Prior Lake
Poverty rate	2.7%	2.9%
Average household size	2.67	2.74
Mean commute (minutes)	27	25
Median year structure built	1998	1997