Medicine Lake vs Plentywood

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

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

Plentywood has the higher population (1,677 vs 190 in Medicine Lake). Plentywood has the higher median household income ($62,163 vs $41,000 in Medicine Lake). Plentywood has the higher median home value ($148,800 vs $95,000 in Medicine Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
Population	190	1,677
Median age	49.8 yrs	49.5 yrs
Median household income	$41,000	$62,163
Median home value	$95,000	$148,800
Median gross rent	$492	$755
Housing units	143	980
Homeownership rate	71.8%	70.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.6%	21.3%
Unemployment rate	3.3%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
Population	242 → 190 (-21.5%)	1,825 → 1,677 (-8.1%)
Median household income	$46,563 → $41,000 (-11.9%)	$52,008 → $62,163 (+19.5%)
Median home value	$103,300 → $95,000 (-8.0%)	$155,800 → $148,800 (-4.5%)
Median gross rent	$700 → $492 (-29.7%)	$723 → $755 (+4.4%)

Medicine Lake

Population

242190

Median household income

$46,563$41,000

Median home value

$103,300$95,000

Median gross rent

$700$492

Plentywood

Population

1,8251,677

Median household income

$52,008$62,163

Median home value

$155,800$148,800

Median gross rent

$723$755

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
Under 5	1.1%	5.2%
5 to 17	12.1%	12.2%
18 to 24	8.9%	7.5%
25 to 34	9.5%	8.6%
35 to 44	12.1%	11.3%
45 to 54	7.4%	11.1%
55 to 64	25.3%	16.6%
65 to 74	11.6%	11.5%
75 and over	12.1%	16.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
White (non-Hispanic)	83.7%	87.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	6.3%	2.7%
Asian	0.0%	0.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.7%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.1%	4.2%
Hispanic or Latino	8.9%	3.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
No high school diploma	7.4%	14.1%
High school graduate	29.1%	36.8%
Some college or associate's	41.9%	27.8%
Bachelor's degree	16.9%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	4.7%	4.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
Drove alone	66.1%	72.2%
Carpooled	17.4%	10.6%
Public transit	0.0%	1.5%
Walked	10.4%	11.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.7%
Worked from home	4.3%	0.4%
Other means	1.7%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
1-unit, detached	65.0%	75.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.7%
2 to 4 units	7.7%	11.5%
5 to 19 units	4.2%	3.1%
20 or more units	0.7%	6.4%
Mobile home & other	22.4%	3.3%

Poverty & households

	Medicine Lake	Plentywood
Poverty rate	12.3%	12.5%
Average household size	1.73	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	22	9
Median year structure built	1968	1961