Iron County vs Lake County

A side-by-side comparison of Iron County and Lake County: population, income, housing, and more.

Iron County and Lake County are counties in Michigan. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Lake County has the higher population (12,393 vs 11,650 in Iron County). Iron County has the higher median household income ($53,614 vs $49,680 in Lake County). Lake County has the higher median home value ($122,900 vs $101,500 in Iron County).

Population, income & housing

	Iron County	Lake County
Population	11,650	12,393
Median age	53.2 yrs	50.3 yrs
Median household income	$53,614	$49,680
Median home value	$101,500	$122,900
Median gross rent	$510	$863
Housing units	9,046	13,432
Homeownership rate	85.3%	81.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.6%	12.5%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	7.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Iron County	Lake County
Population	11,152 → 11,650 (+4.5%)	11,852 → 12,393 (+4.6%)
Median household income	$41,599 → $53,614 (+28.9%)	$37,320 → $49,680 (+33.1%)
Median home value	$77,700 → $101,500 (+30.6%)	$88,000 → $122,900 (+39.7%)
Median gross rent	$513 → $510 (-0.6%)	$589 → $863 (+46.5%)

Iron County

Population

11,15211,650

Median household income

$41,599$53,614

Median home value

$77,700$101,500

Median gross rent

$513$510

Lake County

Population

11,85212,393

Median household income

$37,320$49,680

Median home value

$88,000$122,900

Median gross rent

$589$863

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Iron County	Lake County
Under 5	4.1%	3.8%
5 to 17	13.3%	11.4%
18 to 24	5.1%	7.2%
25 to 34	8.3%	9.3%
35 to 44	10.0%	11.6%
45 to 54	10.6%	12.5%
55 to 64	17.6%	17.7%
65 to 74	18.2%	17.1%
75 and over	12.7%	9.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Iron County	Lake County
White (non-Hispanic)	92.5%	75.8%
Black or African American	0.8%	8.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.1%	0.8%
Asian	0.6%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.6%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	2.1%	9.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Iron County	Lake County
No high school diploma	6.6%	17.4%
High school graduate	41.0%	40.2%
Some college or associate's	31.8%	29.9%
Bachelor's degree	13.8%	9.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.8%	3.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Iron County	Lake County
Drove alone	79.6%	78.5%
Carpooled	6.7%	8.7%
Public transit	0.0%	1.1%
Walked	3.4%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.2%
Worked from home	7.9%	7.3%
Other means	2.1%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Iron County	Lake County
1-unit, detached	88.0%	70.3%
1-unit, attached	0.5%	0.8%
2 to 4 units	2.8%	1.2%
5 to 19 units	2.3%	0.3%
20 or more units	2.0%	0.3%
Mobile home & other	4.4%	27.1%

Poverty & households

	Iron County	Lake County
Poverty rate	16.9%	20.6%
Average household size	2.11	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	20	30
Median year structure built	1962	1977