Lake County vs Park County

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

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

Lake County has the higher population (32,073 vs 17,484 in Park County). Park County has the higher median household income ($66,607 vs $61,965 in Lake County). Park County has the higher median home value ($429,700 vs $369,200 in Lake County).

Population, income & housing

	Lake County	Park County
Population	32,073	17,484
Median age	43.8 yrs	46.2 yrs
Median household income	$61,965	$66,607
Median home value	$369,200	$429,700
Median gross rent	$884	$927
Housing units	16,457	9,597
Homeownership rate	73.8%	69.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.5%	38.1%
Unemployment rate	6.4%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake County	Park County
Population	30,013 → 32,073 (+6.9%)	16,352 → 17,484 (+6.9%)
Median household income	$48,829 → $61,965 (+26.9%)	$53,068 → $66,607 (+25.5%)
Median home value	$253,100 → $369,200 (+45.9%)	$271,300 → $429,700 (+58.4%)
Median gross rent	$705 → $884 (+25.4%)	$789 → $927 (+17.5%)

Lake County

Population

30,01332,073

Median household income

$48,829$61,965

Median home value

$253,100$369,200

Median gross rent

$705$884

Park County

Population

16,35217,484

Median household income

$53,068$66,607

Median home value

$271,300$429,700

Median gross rent

$789$927

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake County	Park County
Under 5	5.1%	4.7%
5 to 17	17.5%	12.3%
18 to 24	7.0%	5.3%
25 to 34	10.6%	12.9%
35 to 44	11.2%	12.9%
45 to 54	10.7%	12.1%
55 to 64	14.4%	15.7%
65 to 74	14.3%	15.2%
75 and over	9.3%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake County	Park County
White (non-Hispanic)	64.5%	91.7%
Black or African American	0.2%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	20.1%	0.6%
Asian	0.5%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	10.2%	3.8%
Hispanic or Latino	4.2%	3.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake County	Park County
No high school diploma	7.0%	3.3%
High school graduate	25.9%	26.6%
Some college or associate's	36.6%	32.0%
Bachelor's degree	20.1%	26.4%
Graduate or professional degree	10.4%	11.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake County	Park County
Drove alone	71.6%	67.4%
Carpooled	11.8%	11.0%
Public transit	0.2%	0.8%
Walked	3.6%	3.0%
Bicycle	0.6%	1.2%
Worked from home	11.1%	15.9%
Other means	1.1%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake County	Park County
1-unit, detached	77.8%	75.7%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	2.9%
2 to 4 units	5.9%	5.4%
5 to 19 units	3.0%	4.2%
20 or more units	1.0%	3.3%
Mobile home & other	10.1%	8.6%

Poverty & households

	Lake County	Park County
Poverty rate	17.7%	13.1%
Average household size	2.60	2.08
Mean commute (minutes)	22	25
Median year structure built	1986	1978