Big Lake vs Clear Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Big Lake and Clear Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Big Lake has the higher population (12,115 vs 621 in Clear Lake). Big Lake has the higher median household income ($113,333 vs $105,000 in Clear Lake). Big Lake has the higher median home value ($291,700 vs $255,800 in Clear Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
Population	12,115	621
Median age	31.7 yrs	32.2 yrs
Median household income	$113,333	$105,000
Median home value	$291,700	$255,800
Median gross rent	$1,417	$864
Housing units	4,075	214
Homeownership rate	86.6%	89.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.9%	23.1%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	6.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
Population	10,856 → 12,115 (+11.6%)	573 → 621 (+8.4%)
Median household income	$80,889 → $113,333 (+40.1%)	$86,250 → $105,000 (+21.7%)
Median home value	$193,000 → $291,700 (+51.1%)	$181,000 → $255,800 (+41.3%)
Median gross rent	$972 → $1,417 (+45.8%)	$856 → $864 (+0.9%)

Big Lake

Population

10,85612,115

Median household income

$80,889$113,333

Median home value

$193,000$291,700

Median gross rent

$972$1,417

Clear Lake

Population

573621

Median household income

$86,250$105,000

Median home value

$181,000$255,800

Median gross rent

$856$864

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
Under 5	6.8%	9.0%
5 to 17	21.8%	21.4%
18 to 24	12.6%	5.5%
25 to 34	12.0%	22.2%
35 to 44	15.4%	16.9%
45 to 54	13.9%	13.4%
55 to 64	11.8%	5.5%
65 to 74	3.0%	4.0%
75 and over	2.6%	2.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	99.2%
Black or African American	3.1%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.8%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.2%	0.5%
Hispanic or Latino	6.8%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
No high school diploma	4.8%	5.8%
High school graduate	29.5%	27.4%
Some college or associate's	38.8%	43.7%
Bachelor's degree	21.1%	21.4%
Graduate or professional degree	5.8%	1.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
Drove alone	76.1%	70.1%
Carpooled	12.9%	6.4%
Public transit	1.2%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.8%	22.9%
Other means	0.9%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
1-unit, detached	84.7%	86.9%
1-unit, attached	3.5%	2.3%
2 to 4 units	3.2%	4.2%
5 to 19 units	2.0%	6.5%
20 or more units	3.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.1%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Big Lake	Clear Lake
Poverty rate	5.1%	2.7%
Average household size	3.04	2.90
Mean commute (minutes)	32	29
Median year structure built	1998	2000