Anacortes vs Big Lake

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

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

Anacortes has the higher population (17,837 vs 2,648 in Big Lake). Big Lake has the higher median household income ($119,000 vs $89,788 in Anacortes). Big Lake has the higher median home value ($659,800 vs $647,700 in Anacortes).

Population, income & housing

	Anacortes	Big Lake
Population	17,837	2,648
Median age	49.5 yrs	48.3 yrs
Median household income	$89,788	$119,000
Median home value	$647,700	$659,800
Median gross rent	$1,609	$1,932
Housing units	8,598	1,119
Homeownership rate	69.9%	88.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.7%	36.5%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	0.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Anacortes	Big Lake
Population	16,977 → 17,837 (+5.1%)	1,774 → 2,648 (+49.3%)
Median household income	$71,844 → $89,788 (+25.0%)	$105,682 → $119,000 (+12.6%)
Median home value	$406,400 → $647,700 (+59.4%)	$386,100 → $659,800 (+70.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,193 → $1,609 (+34.9%)	$977 → $1,932 (+97.7%)

Anacortes

Population

16,97717,837

Median household income

$71,844$89,788

Median home value

$406,400$647,700

Median gross rent

$1,193$1,609

Big Lake

Population

1,7742,648

Median household income

$105,682$119,000

Median home value

$386,100$659,800

Median gross rent

$977$1,932

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Anacortes	Big Lake
Under 5	3.6%	4.0%
5 to 17	13.8%	17.6%
18 to 24	5.7%	0.8%
25 to 34	9.8%	11.7%
35 to 44	11.6%	14.7%
45 to 54	11.4%	6.6%
55 to 64	13.0%	20.6%
65 to 74	17.9%	16.1%
75 and over	13.2%	7.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Anacortes	Big Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	87.2%	82.2%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.0%
Asian	1.7%	4.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	1.8%
Two or more races	4.4%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	5.0%	8.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Anacortes	Big Lake
No high school diploma	3.8%	1.9%
High school graduate	17.8%	24.2%
Some college or associate's	32.7%	37.4%
Bachelor's degree	26.7%	19.4%
Graduate or professional degree	18.9%	17.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Anacortes	Big Lake
Drove alone	72.0%	74.7%
Carpooled	7.6%	13.1%
Public transit	1.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.2%	0.0%
Bicycle	1.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.1%	12.2%
Other means	1.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Anacortes	Big Lake
1-unit, detached	77.0%	84.5%
1-unit, attached	4.4%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	7.2%	2.7%
5 to 19 units	6.1%	2.8%
20 or more units	3.2%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	10.0%

Poverty & households

	Anacortes	Big Lake
Poverty rate	7.9%	4.5%
Average household size	2.22	2.63
Mean commute (minutes)	24	31
Median year structure built	1988	1992