Mountain Iron vs Rice Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Mountain Iron and Rice Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Rice Lake has the higher population (4,120 vs 2,865 in Mountain Iron). Rice Lake has the higher median household income ($95,347 vs $81,607 in Mountain Iron). Rice Lake has the higher median home value ($283,700 vs $180,700 in Mountain Iron).

Population, income & housing

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
Population	2,865	4,120
Median age	49.5 yrs	44.8 yrs
Median household income	$81,607	$95,347
Median home value	$180,700	$283,700
Median gross rent	$911	$1,328
Housing units	1,423	1,825
Homeownership rate	74.2%	90.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.9%	31.7%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	0.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
Population	2,853 → 2,865 (+0.4%)	4,149 → 4,120 (-0.7%)
Median household income	$51,389 → $81,607 (+58.8%)	$77,500 → $95,347 (+23.0%)
Median home value	$144,500 → $180,700 (+25.1%)	$209,500 → $283,700 (+35.4%)
Median gross rent	$550 → $911 (+65.6%)	$1,125 → $1,328 (+18.0%)

Mountain Iron

Population

2,8532,865

Median household income

$51,389$81,607

Median home value

$144,500$180,700

Median gross rent

$550$911

Rice Lake

Population

4,1494,120

Median household income

$77,500$95,347

Median home value

$209,500$283,700

Median gross rent

$1,125$1,328

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
Under 5	3.3%	5.0%
5 to 17	12.8%	13.7%
18 to 24	4.7%	6.9%
25 to 34	9.6%	9.2%
35 to 44	12.7%	15.4%
45 to 54	17.7%	11.2%
55 to 64	12.9%	14.7%
65 to 74	17.8%	15.6%
75 and over	8.6%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	95.3%	97.7%
Black or African American	0.2%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.2%	0.0%
Asian	1.9%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.7%	1.5%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	0.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
No high school diploma	5.9%	4.5%
High school graduate	34.0%	27.7%
Some college or associate's	37.3%	36.1%
Bachelor's degree	17.5%	22.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.4%	9.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
Drove alone	74.0%	81.7%
Carpooled	12.4%	8.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.1%
Walked	0.0%	3.5%
Bicycle	4.0%	0.9%
Worked from home	4.3%	5.7%
Other means	5.2%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
1-unit, detached	69.9%	92.2%
1-unit, attached	1.3%	0.4%
2 to 4 units	3.3%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	8.3%	0.0%
20 or more units	13.8%	1.5%
Mobile home & other	3.4%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Mountain Iron	Rice Lake
Poverty rate	9.3%	6.8%
Average household size	2.19	2.39
Mean commute (minutes)	16	22
Median year structure built	1973	1974