Lake Elmo vs Oakdale

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

Lake Elmo 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 12,504 in Lake Elmo). Lake Elmo has the higher median household income ($153,407 vs $90,379 in Oakdale). Lake Elmo has the higher median home value ($588,900 vs $305,900 in Oakdale).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
Population	12,504	28,109
Median age	40.2 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$153,407	$90,379
Median home value	$588,900	$305,900
Median gross rent	$2,204	$1,452
Housing units	4,747	11,744
Homeownership rate	92.3%	77.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	61.7%	33.6%
Unemployment rate	2.3%	4.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
Population	8,969 → 12,504 (+39.4%)	27,963 → 28,109 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$118,421 → $153,407 (+29.5%)	$72,511 → $90,379 (+24.6%)
Median home value	$426,600 → $588,900 (+38.0%)	$227,700 → $305,900 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,280 → $2,204 (+72.2%)	$1,073 → $1,452 (+35.3%)

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

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)

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
Under 5	7.9%	5.2%
5 to 17	19.1%	16.0%
18 to 24	6.0%	9.0%
25 to 34	9.7%	14.9%
35 to 44	14.7%	8.6%
45 to 54	15.5%	13.6%
55 to 64	12.5%	15.2%
65 to 74	7.7%	9.3%
75 and over	7.0%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
White (non-Hispanic)	85.2%	67.4%
Black or African American	1.4%	8.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	3.8%	13.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.3%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.0%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
No high school diploma	1.1%	6.2%
High school graduate	14.5%	27.1%
Some college or associate's	22.8%	33.0%
Bachelor's degree	37.8%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	23.8%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
Drove alone	57.1%	69.6%
Carpooled	6.3%	9.5%
Public transit	0.5%	1.2%
Walked	0.3%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.5%
Worked from home	34.5%	17.6%
Other means	1.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
1-unit, detached	80.5%	57.8%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	22.2%
2 to 4 units	1.6%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	2.0%
20 or more units	2.2%	14.6%
Mobile home & other	10.7%	1.4%

Poverty & households

	Lake Elmo	Oakdale
Poverty rate	4.3%	6.0%
Average household size	2.73	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	23	24
Median year structure built	2002	1987