Bigfork vs Lakeside

A side-by-side comparison of Bigfork and Lakeside: population, income, housing, and more.

Bigfork and Lakeside are places in Montana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Bigfork has the higher population (5,249 vs 2,730 in Lakeside). Lakeside has the higher median household income ($83,958 vs $82,648 in Bigfork). Bigfork has the higher median home value ($614,300 vs $589,500 in Lakeside).

Population, income & housing

	Bigfork	Lakeside
Population	5,249	2,730
Median age	53.7 yrs	54.5 yrs
Median household income	$82,648	$83,958
Median home value	$614,300	$589,500
Median gross rent	$1,103	—
Housing units	3,207	1,634
Homeownership rate	78.6%	79.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	51.0%	30.4%
Unemployment rate	2.9%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bigfork	Lakeside
Population	4,668 → 5,249 (+12.4%)	2,249 → 2,730 (+21.4%)
Median household income	$60,076 → $82,648 (+37.6%)	$66,372 → $83,958 (+26.5%)
Median home value	$365,300 → $614,300 (+68.2%)	$398,000 → $589,500 (+48.1%)
Median gross rent	$884 → $1,103 (+24.8%)	$599 → $1,130 (+88.6%)

Bigfork

Population

4,6685,249

Median household income

$60,076$82,648

Median home value

$365,300$614,300

Median gross rent

$884$1,103

Lakeside

Population

2,2492,730

Median household income

$66,372$83,958

Median home value

$398,000$589,500

Median gross rent

$599$1,130

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bigfork	Lakeside
Under 5	2.0%	5.1%
5 to 17	13.4%	16.0%
18 to 24	8.4%	2.1%
25 to 34	8.4%	7.1%
35 to 44	7.9%	8.9%
45 to 54	12.0%	12.8%
55 to 64	17.5%	20.7%
65 to 74	16.4%	19.6%
75 and over	14.0%	7.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bigfork	Lakeside
White (non-Hispanic)	84.1%	90.4%
Black or African American	0.1%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.5%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	4.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	2.3%	0.8%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	9.3%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bigfork	Lakeside
No high school diploma	2.4%	3.5%
High school graduate	15.1%	22.7%
Some college or associate's	31.5%	43.5%
Bachelor's degree	33.6%	14.8%
Graduate or professional degree	17.4%	15.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bigfork	Lakeside
Drove alone	69.3%	65.2%
Carpooled	6.3%	0.6%
Public transit	0.1%	1.6%
Walked	6.0%	9.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	16.7%	16.5%
Other means	1.6%	6.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bigfork	Lakeside
1-unit, detached	71.5%	79.9%
1-unit, attached	6.4%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	4.7%	3.3%
5 to 19 units	8.3%	10.8%
20 or more units	2.9%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	6.2%	5.5%

Poverty & households

	Bigfork	Lakeside
Poverty rate	6.2%	12.6%
Average household size	2.27	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	21	28
Median year structure built	1994	1991