Forest Lake vs Hugo

A side-by-side comparison of Forest Lake and Hugo: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Forest Lake has the higher population (20,678 vs 16,076 in Hugo). Hugo has the higher median household income ($114,057 vs $89,879 in Forest Lake). Hugo has the higher median home value ($394,200 vs $375,900 in Forest Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Forest Lake	Hugo
Population	20,678	16,076
Median age	38.8 yrs	39.2 yrs
Median household income	$89,879	$114,057
Median home value	$375,900	$394,200
Median gross rent	$1,379	$1,896
Housing units	8,589	6,522
Homeownership rate	71.8%	89.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.7%	44.0%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	1.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest Lake	Hugo
Population	20,004 → 20,678 (+3.4%)	14,767 → 16,076 (+8.9%)
Median household income	$79,840 → $89,879 (+12.6%)	$89,969 → $114,057 (+26.8%)
Median home value	$272,200 → $375,900 (+38.1%)	$259,300 → $394,200 (+52.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,117 → $1,379 (+23.5%)	$1,500 → $1,896 (+26.4%)

Forest Lake

Population

20,00420,678

Median household income

$79,840$89,879

Median home value

$272,200$375,900

Median gross rent

$1,117$1,379

Hugo

Population

14,76716,076

Median household income

$89,969$114,057

Median home value

$259,300$394,200

Median gross rent

$1,500$1,896

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest Lake	Hugo
Under 5	4.9%	8.9%
5 to 17	18.0%	16.5%
18 to 24	8.4%	6.5%
25 to 34	14.2%	10.4%
35 to 44	12.3%	15.7%
45 to 54	13.0%	12.7%
55 to 64	12.3%	14.8%
65 to 74	9.4%	9.1%
75 and over	7.4%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest Lake	Hugo
White (non-Hispanic)	81.5%	87.0%
Black or African American	3.6%	3.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	5.9%	3.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.3%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	3.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest Lake	Hugo
No high school diploma	6.7%	1.8%
High school graduate	24.6%	19.6%
Some college or associate's	32.9%	34.7%
Bachelor's degree	25.0%	25.5%
Graduate or professional degree	10.8%	18.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest Lake	Hugo
Drove alone	73.0%	79.2%
Carpooled	7.6%	3.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.6%	0.4%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	16.1%	16.0%
Other means	0.4%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest Lake	Hugo
1-unit, detached	60.7%	61.0%
1-unit, attached	12.8%	28.6%
2 to 4 units	2.6%	0.8%
5 to 19 units	4.7%	2.8%
20 or more units	17.4%	3.3%
Mobile home & other	1.9%	3.5%

Poverty & households

	Forest Lake	Hugo
Poverty rate	6.7%	1.7%
Average household size	2.52	2.53
Mean commute (minutes)	25	26
Median year structure built	1990	2003