Balsam Lake vs Clear Lake

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

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

Clear Lake has the higher population (1,050 vs 819 in Balsam Lake). Clear Lake has the higher median household income ($73,214 vs $48,468 in Balsam Lake). Balsam Lake has the higher median home value ($188,600 vs $172,100 in Clear Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
Population	819	1,050
Median age	50.6 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$48,468	$73,214
Median home value	$188,600	$172,100
Median gross rent	$1,063	$910
Housing units	641	474
Homeownership rate	82.7%	76.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.1%	13.1%
Unemployment rate	7.3%	3.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
Population	800 → 819 (+2.4%)	1,078 → 1,050 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$40,968 → $48,468 (+18.3%)	$47,054 → $73,214 (+55.6%)
Median home value	$133,500 → $188,600 (+41.3%)	$130,900 → $172,100 (+31.5%)
Median gross rent	$822 → $1,063 (+29.3%)	$580 → $910 (+56.9%)

Balsam Lake

Population

800819

Median household income

$40,968$48,468

Median home value

$133,500$188,600

Median gross rent

$822$1,063

Clear Lake

Population

1,0781,050

Median household income

$47,054$73,214

Median home value

$130,900$172,100

Median gross rent

$580$910

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
Under 5	2.4%	6.9%
5 to 17	11.6%	19.2%
18 to 24	7.0%	4.0%
25 to 34	14.9%	14.2%
35 to 44	11.8%	11.1%
45 to 54	7.4%	12.7%
55 to 64	13.8%	16.7%
65 to 74	15.4%	7.0%
75 and over	15.6%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	92.4%	89.0%
Black or African American	1.8%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.2%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.4%
Two or more races	1.3%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	3.1%	5.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
No high school diploma	11.9%	7.2%
High school graduate	34.9%	36.5%
Some college or associate's	33.1%	43.2%
Bachelor's degree	14.4%	9.0%
Graduate or professional degree	5.7%	4.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
Drove alone	74.6%	89.5%
Carpooled	6.9%	5.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.6%
Walked	10.3%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.2%	2.0%
Other means	1.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
1-unit, detached	73.0%	68.1%
1-unit, attached	2.3%	11.4%
2 to 4 units	2.7%	1.3%
5 to 19 units	4.8%	6.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	3.0%
Mobile home & other	17.2%	9.7%

Poverty & households

	Balsam Lake	Clear Lake
Poverty rate	15.7%	16.8%
Average household size	1.99	2.42
Mean commute (minutes)	25	21
Median year structure built	1978	1977