Forest vs Lake

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

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

Forest has the higher population (5,365 vs 523 in Lake). Forest has the higher median household income ($51,082 vs $37,813 in Lake). Forest has the higher median home value ($129,100 vs $73,900 in Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Forest	Lake
Population	5,365	523
Median age	38.2 yrs	35.4 yrs
Median household income	$51,082	$37,813
Median home value	$129,100	$73,900
Median gross rent	$695	$739
Housing units	2,169	225
Homeownership rate	50.6%	60.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.7%	10.8%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest	Lake
Population	5,629 → 5,365 (-4.7%)	439 → 523 (+19.1%)
Median household income	$27,165 → $51,082 (+88.0%)	$47,500 → $37,813 (-20.4%)
Median home value	$77,200 → $129,100 (+67.2%)	$72,500 → $73,900 (+1.9%)
Median gross rent	$707 → $695 (-1.7%)	$594 → $739 (+24.4%)

Forest

Population

5,6295,365

Median household income

$27,165$51,082

Median home value

$77,200$129,100

Median gross rent

$707$695

Lake

Population

439523

Median household income

$47,500$37,813

Median home value

$72,500$73,900

Median gross rent

$594$739

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest	Lake
Under 5	9.1%	4.8%
5 to 17	19.4%	20.7%
18 to 24	8.4%	10.7%
25 to 34	10.0%	12.4%
35 to 44	16.9%	14.9%
45 to 54	8.6%	9.4%
55 to 64	13.8%	11.9%
65 to 74	7.3%	5.4%
75 and over	6.5%	9.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest	Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	24.8%	38.2%
Black or African American	42.3%	58.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.7%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	29.2%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest	Lake
No high school diploma	32.5%	24.0%
High school graduate	24.8%	38.9%
Some college or associate's	28.0%	26.3%
Bachelor's degree	8.6%	10.2%
Graduate or professional degree	6.1%	0.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest	Lake
Drove alone	74.6%	94.5%
Carpooled	11.7%	0.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	10.4%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	2.1%
Other means	3.2%	0.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest	Lake
1-unit, detached	58.7%	56.4%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	3.6%
2 to 4 units	14.6%	8.0%
5 to 19 units	9.7%	1.3%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.9%
Mobile home & other	17.0%	29.8%

Poverty & households

	Forest	Lake
Poverty rate	23.2%	17.4%
Average household size	2.80	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	18	26
Median year structure built	1978	1975