Cottage Grove vs Oakdale

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

Cottage Grove and Oakdale 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 28,109 in Oakdale). Cottage Grove has the higher median household income ($121,452 vs $90,379 in Oakdale). Cottage Grove has the higher median home value ($359,600 vs $305,900 in Oakdale).

Population, income & housing

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
Population	40,124	28,109
Median age	36.8 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$121,452	$90,379
Median home value	$359,600	$305,900
Median gross rent	$1,644	$1,452
Housing units	14,038	11,744
Homeownership rate	88.4%	77.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	39.3%	33.6%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	4.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
Population	36,602 → 40,124 (+9.6%)	27,963 → 28,109 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$102,039 → $121,452 (+19.0%)	$72,511 → $90,379 (+24.6%)
Median home value	$249,800 → $359,600 (+44.0%)	$227,700 → $305,900 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,342 → $1,644 (+22.5%)	$1,073 → $1,452 (+35.3%)

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

Oakdale

Population

27,96328,109

Median household income

$72,511$90,379

Median home value

$227,700$305,900

Median gross rent

$1,073$1,452

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
Under 5	7.4%	5.2%
5 to 17	19.2%	16.0%
18 to 24	7.4%	9.0%
25 to 34	12.3%	14.9%
35 to 44	17.0%	8.6%
45 to 54	11.5%	13.6%
55 to 64	11.5%	15.2%
65 to 74	8.5%	9.3%
75 and over	5.2%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
White (non-Hispanic)	76.1%	67.4%
Black or African American	5.3%	8.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.3%
Asian	6.5%	13.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.8%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	6.8%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
No high school diploma	4.6%	6.2%
High school graduate	23.6%	27.1%
Some college or associate's	32.5%	33.0%
Bachelor's degree	27.6%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	11.6%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
Drove alone	71.2%	69.6%
Carpooled	7.4%	9.5%
Public transit	0.8%	1.2%
Walked	0.5%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.5%
Worked from home	19.3%	17.6%
Other means	0.7%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
1-unit, detached	80.5%	57.8%
1-unit, attached	11.7%	22.2%
2 to 4 units	1.6%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	2.2%	2.0%
20 or more units	3.7%	14.6%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	1.4%

Poverty & households

	Cottage Grove	Oakdale
Poverty rate	4.2%	6.0%
Average household size	2.88	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	25	24
Median year structure built	1988	1987