Clear Lake vs Elk River

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

Clear 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 621 in Clear Lake). Clear Lake has the higher median household income ($105,000 vs $99,457 in Elk River). Elk River has the higher median home value ($338,300 vs $255,800 in Clear Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Clear Lake	Elk River
Population	621	26,367
Median age	32.2 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$105,000	$99,457
Median home value	$255,800	$338,300
Median gross rent	$864	$1,269
Housing units	214	10,114
Homeownership rate	89.3%	80.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.1%	30.8%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	2.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clear Lake	Elk River
Population	573 → 621 (+8.4%)	24,522 → 26,367 (+7.5%)
Median household income	$86,250 → $105,000 (+21.7%)	$89,596 → $99,457 (+11.0%)
Median home value	$181,000 → $255,800 (+41.3%)	$241,400 → $338,300 (+40.1%)
Median gross rent	$856 → $864 (+0.9%)	$1,036 → $1,269 (+22.5%)

Clear Lake

Population

573621

Median household income

$86,250$105,000

Median home value

$181,000$255,800

Median gross rent

$856$864

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)

	Clear Lake	Elk River
Under 5	9.0%	6.2%
5 to 17	21.4%	18.8%
18 to 24	5.5%	6.0%
25 to 34	22.2%	15.8%
35 to 44	16.9%	15.8%
45 to 54	13.4%	11.8%
55 to 64	5.5%	11.8%
65 to 74	4.0%	8.5%
75 and over	2.1%	5.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clear Lake	Elk River
White (non-Hispanic)	99.2%	82.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	5.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.0%	1.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	1.0%
Two or more races	0.5%	5.9%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	3.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clear Lake	Elk River
No high school diploma	5.8%	6.1%
High school graduate	27.4%	26.2%
Some college or associate's	43.7%	36.8%
Bachelor's degree	21.4%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	1.8%	7.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clear Lake	Elk River
Drove alone	70.1%	76.9%
Carpooled	6.4%	5.3%
Public transit	0.0%	1.4%
Walked	0.0%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	22.9%	14.1%
Other means	0.6%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clear Lake	Elk River
1-unit, detached	86.9%	66.7%
1-unit, attached	2.3%	15.1%
2 to 4 units	4.2%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	6.5%	4.2%
20 or more units	0.0%	11.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Clear Lake	Elk River
Poverty rate	2.7%	3.2%
Average household size	2.90	2.67
Mean commute (minutes)	29	28
Median year structure built	2000	1995