Forest Lake vs Oakdale

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

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

Oakdale has the higher population (28,109 vs 20,678 in Forest Lake). Oakdale has the higher median household income ($90,379 vs $89,879 in Forest Lake). Forest Lake has the higher median home value ($375,900 vs $305,900 in Oakdale).

Population, income & housing

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
Population	20,678	28,109
Median age	38.8 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$89,879	$90,379
Median home value	$375,900	$305,900
Median gross rent	$1,379	$1,452
Housing units	8,589	11,744
Homeownership rate	71.8%	77.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.7%	33.6%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	4.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
Population	20,004 → 20,678 (+3.4%)	27,963 → 28,109 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$79,840 → $89,879 (+12.6%)	$72,511 → $90,379 (+24.6%)
Median home value	$272,200 → $375,900 (+38.1%)	$227,700 → $305,900 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,117 → $1,379 (+23.5%)	$1,073 → $1,452 (+35.3%)

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

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)

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
Under 5	4.9%	5.2%
5 to 17	18.0%	16.0%
18 to 24	8.4%	9.0%
25 to 34	14.2%	14.9%
35 to 44	12.3%	8.6%
45 to 54	13.0%	13.6%
55 to 64	12.3%	15.2%
65 to 74	9.4%	9.3%
75 and over	7.4%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
White (non-Hispanic)	81.5%	67.4%
Black or African American	3.6%	8.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.3%
Asian	5.9%	13.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.3%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
No high school diploma	6.7%	6.2%
High school graduate	24.6%	27.1%
Some college or associate's	32.9%	33.0%
Bachelor's degree	25.0%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	10.8%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
Drove alone	73.0%	69.6%
Carpooled	7.6%	9.5%
Public transit	0.0%	1.2%
Walked	2.6%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.5%
Worked from home	16.1%	17.6%
Other means	0.4%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
1-unit, detached	60.7%	57.8%
1-unit, attached	12.8%	22.2%
2 to 4 units	2.6%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	4.7%	2.0%
20 or more units	17.4%	14.6%
Mobile home & other	1.9%	1.4%

Poverty & households

	Forest Lake	Oakdale
Poverty rate	6.7%	6.0%
Average household size	2.52	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	25	24
Median year structure built	1990	1987