Big Lake vs Elk River

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

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

Elk River has the higher population (26,367 vs 12,115 in Big Lake). Big Lake has the higher median household income ($113,333 vs $99,457 in Elk River). Elk River has the higher median home value ($338,300 vs $291,700 in Big Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Big Lake	Elk River
Population	12,115	26,367
Median age	31.7 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$113,333	$99,457
Median home value	$291,700	$338,300
Median gross rent	$1,417	$1,269
Housing units	4,075	10,114
Homeownership rate	86.6%	80.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.9%	30.8%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	2.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Lake	Elk River
Population	10,856 → 12,115 (+11.6%)	24,522 → 26,367 (+7.5%)
Median household income	$80,889 → $113,333 (+40.1%)	$89,596 → $99,457 (+11.0%)
Median home value	$193,000 → $291,700 (+51.1%)	$241,400 → $338,300 (+40.1%)
Median gross rent	$972 → $1,417 (+45.8%)	$1,036 → $1,269 (+22.5%)

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

Elk River

Population

24,52226,367

Median household income

$89,596$99,457

Median home value

$241,400$338,300

Median gross rent

$1,036$1,269

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Lake	Elk River
Under 5	6.8%	6.2%
5 to 17	21.8%	18.8%
18 to 24	12.6%	6.0%
25 to 34	12.0%	15.8%
35 to 44	15.4%	15.8%
45 to 54	13.9%	11.8%
55 to 64	11.8%	11.8%
65 to 74	3.0%	8.5%
75 and over	2.6%	5.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Lake	Elk River
White (non-Hispanic)	85.9%	82.4%
Black or African American	3.1%	5.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.8%	1.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	1.0%
Two or more races	3.2%	5.9%
Hispanic or Latino	6.8%	3.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Lake	Elk River
No high school diploma	4.8%	6.1%
High school graduate	29.5%	26.2%
Some college or associate's	38.8%	36.8%
Bachelor's degree	21.1%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	5.8%	7.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Lake	Elk River
Drove alone	76.1%	76.9%
Carpooled	12.9%	5.3%
Public transit	1.2%	1.4%
Walked	0.0%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.2%
Worked from home	8.8%	14.1%
Other means	0.9%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Lake	Elk River
1-unit, detached	84.7%	66.7%
1-unit, attached	3.5%	15.1%
2 to 4 units	3.2%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	2.0%	4.2%
20 or more units	3.5%	11.4%
Mobile home & other	3.1%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Big Lake	Elk River
Poverty rate	5.1%	3.2%
Average household size	3.04	2.67
Mean commute (minutes)	32	28
Median year structure built	1998	1995