Cottage Grove vs Lake Elmo

A side-by-side comparison of Cottage Grove and Lake Elmo: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cottage Grove has the higher population (40,124 vs 12,504 in Lake Elmo). Lake Elmo has the higher median household income ($153,407 vs $121,452 in Cottage Grove). Lake Elmo has the higher median home value ($588,900 vs $359,600 in Cottage Grove).

Population, income & housing

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
Population	40,124	12,504
Median age	36.8 yrs	40.2 yrs
Median household income	$121,452	$153,407
Median home value	$359,600	$588,900
Median gross rent	$1,644	$2,204
Housing units	14,038	4,747
Homeownership rate	88.4%	92.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	39.3%	61.7%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
Population	36,602 → 40,124 (+9.6%)	8,969 → 12,504 (+39.4%)
Median household income	$102,039 → $121,452 (+19.0%)	$118,421 → $153,407 (+29.5%)
Median home value	$249,800 → $359,600 (+44.0%)	$426,600 → $588,900 (+38.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,342 → $1,644 (+22.5%)	$1,280 → $2,204 (+72.2%)

Cottage Grove

Population

36,60240,124

Median household income

$102,039$121,452

Median home value

$249,800$359,600

Median gross rent

$1,342$1,644

Lake Elmo

Population

8,96912,504

Median household income

$118,421$153,407

Median home value

$426,600$588,900

Median gross rent

$1,280$2,204

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
Under 5	7.4%	7.9%
5 to 17	19.2%	19.1%
18 to 24	7.4%	6.0%
25 to 34	12.3%	9.7%
35 to 44	17.0%	14.7%
45 to 54	11.5%	15.5%
55 to 64	11.5%	12.5%
65 to 74	8.5%	7.7%
75 and over	5.2%	7.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
White (non-Hispanic)	76.1%	85.2%
Black or African American	5.3%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	6.5%	3.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	1.4%
Two or more races	4.8%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	6.8%	4.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
No high school diploma	4.6%	1.1%
High school graduate	23.6%	14.5%
Some college or associate's	32.5%	22.8%
Bachelor's degree	27.6%	37.8%
Graduate or professional degree	11.6%	23.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
Drove alone	71.2%	57.1%
Carpooled	7.4%	6.3%
Public transit	0.8%	0.5%
Walked	0.5%	0.3%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.3%
Worked from home	19.3%	34.5%
Other means	0.7%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
1-unit, detached	80.5%	80.5%
1-unit, attached	11.7%	5.1%
2 to 4 units	1.6%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	2.2%	0.0%
20 or more units	3.7%	2.2%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	10.7%

Poverty & households

	Cottage Grove	Lake Elmo
Poverty rate	4.2%	4.3%
Average household size	2.88	2.73
Mean commute (minutes)	25	23
Median year structure built	1988	2002