Lakeside vs Whitefish

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

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

Whitefish has the higher population (8,422 vs 2,730 in Lakeside). Lakeside has the higher median household income ($83,958 vs $71,110 in Whitefish). Whitefish has the higher median home value ($648,200 vs $589,500 in Lakeside).

Population, income & housing

	Lakeside	Whitefish
Population	2,730	8,422
Median age	54.5 yrs	43.4 yrs
Median household income	$83,958	$71,110
Median home value	$589,500	$648,200
Median gross rent	—	$1,313
Housing units	1,634	5,079
Homeownership rate	79.0%	60.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.4%	56.5%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	2.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lakeside	Whitefish
Population	2,249 → 2,730 (+21.4%)	7,714 → 8,422 (+9.2%)
Median household income	$66,372 → $83,958 (+26.5%)	$52,037 → $71,110 (+36.7%)
Median home value	$398,000 → $589,500 (+48.1%)	$364,500 → $648,200 (+77.8%)
Median gross rent	$599 → $1,130 (+88.6%)	$1,014 → $1,313 (+29.5%)

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

Whitefish

Population

7,7148,422

Median household income

$52,037$71,110

Median home value

$364,500$648,200

Median gross rent

$1,014$1,313

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lakeside	Whitefish
Under 5	5.1%	4.1%
5 to 17	16.0%	13.1%
18 to 24	2.1%	4.0%
25 to 34	7.1%	16.3%
35 to 44	8.9%	14.5%
45 to 54	12.8%	12.5%
55 to 64	20.7%	12.0%
65 to 74	19.6%	13.8%
75 and over	7.7%	9.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lakeside	Whitefish
White (non-Hispanic)	90.4%	95.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	1.0%
Asian	4.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	1.9%	1.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lakeside	Whitefish
No high school diploma	3.5%	2.2%
High school graduate	22.7%	18.7%
Some college or associate's	43.5%	22.6%
Bachelor's degree	14.8%	41.5%
Graduate or professional degree	15.6%	15.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lakeside	Whitefish
Drove alone	65.2%	66.0%
Carpooled	0.6%	2.0%
Public transit	1.6%	0.2%
Walked	9.5%	7.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	2.7%
Worked from home	16.5%	22.0%
Other means	6.6%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lakeside	Whitefish
1-unit, detached	79.9%	59.6%
1-unit, attached	0.6%	9.6%
2 to 4 units	3.3%	10.5%
5 to 19 units	10.8%	14.9%
20 or more units	0.0%	4.0%
Mobile home & other	5.5%	1.3%

Poverty & households

	Lakeside	Whitefish
Poverty rate	12.6%	8.9%
Average household size	2.20	2.02
Mean commute (minutes)	28	17
Median year structure built	1991	1987