Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetIA-CLEAR-LAKE-IA · Clear Lake, IA 7,603 pop · income 50th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Clear Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Clear Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Kenton · lowest
47,667
Kenton · lowest
47,667 median HH income
35.3% of the leader · rank #1
Clear Lake · this city
70,278
Clear Lake · this city
70,278 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #2
Kivalina · near
70,278
Kivalina · near
70,278 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #3
Braceville · near
70,278
Braceville · near
70,278 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #4
Hagaman · near
70,278
Hagaman · near
70,278 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #5
Donnelsville · near
70,278
Donnelsville · near
70,278 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #6
Hewlett · highest
135,139
Hewlett · highest
135,139 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Clear Lake on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 7,603.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Clear Lake - the verdict
Nationally, Clear Lake sits in the 50th percentile for household income and the 35th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
50th
percentile, household income
52nd
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
35th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Clear Lake, IA
7,603 people live in Clear Lake, Iowa - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Clear Lake report a median income of $70,278 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.0%. Typical homes in Clear Lake are valued around $235,100, and the median resident age is 49.2 years. About 29.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 31 residential building permits were authorized in Clear Lake (Building Boom), up 72% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1884.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Iowa at 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $989 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Iowa run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 39.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Clear Lake's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Clear Lake, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Clear Lake?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Clear Lake?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Decorah (7,597 residents, $62,177 income); Knoxville (7,493 residents, $70,136 income); Creston (7,466 residents, $50,752 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Port Jefferson Station, NY (7,605 residents); Hubbard, OH (7,600 residents); Marshfield, MO (7,599 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Clear Lake?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1884.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
How far does income reach against housing in Clear Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Population change
Is Clear Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -60 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 31 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.8%
2025 estimate
7,601
2020 estimate
7,661
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Clear Lake?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 29.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
29.7%
Poverty estimate
1.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 1.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
B-
City profile score · Clear Lake, IA
66/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
87.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate A+
1.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$70,278
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime D
252 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Clear Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 93/100 (A+) · 1.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.7%
Household income: 50/100 (C-) · $70,278
Violent crime: 40/100 (D) · 252 /100k
Where Clear Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Clear Lake's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Clear Lake highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Clear Lake, IA (this city): home $235,100, crime 1,884/100k
Hubbard, OH : home $123,600, crime 1,483/100k
Marshfield, MO : home $201,300, crime 2,636/100k
Kenton, OH : home $98,100, crime 1,679/100k
Decorah, IA : home $234,600, crime 343/100k
Knoxville, IA : home $147,600, crime 2,044/100k
Creston, IA : home $112,600, crime 1,307/100k
Webster City, IA : home $115,400, crime 1,615/100k
Charles City, IA : home $118,900, crime 1,157/100k
Washington, IA : home $144,500, crime 2,091/100k
How does Clear Lake compare to other US cities?
Clear Lake measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income50% higher than other cities
Home value52% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety35% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Iowa alone, Clear Lake ranks #113 of 141 Iowa cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Clear Lake against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Iowa only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Iowa-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Clear Lake near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Clear Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Clear Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#329 of 845
61st percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#84 of 849
90th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#744 of 858
13th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#121 of 858
86th percentile in Iowa
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Iowa only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
50th percentile nationally for median household income · 35th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Clear Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Clear Lake's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Clear Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$235,10048th percentilemore affordable than 48% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Clear Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,317 of 15,516
More affordable than 46% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,785 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, Clear Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,317 of 15,516 and #6,785 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$70,278Clear Lake, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Clear Lake, IA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Clear Lake, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,603
Median Income
$70,278
Median Home Value
$235,100
Median Age
49.2
Poverty Rate
1.0%
Labor force participation
60.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1884.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
252.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1632.2
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Clear Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,661 residents
2021
7,597 residents
2022
7,554 residents
2023
7,576 residents
2024
7,563 residents
2025
7,601 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
31
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
22
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
18
18
0
$7.1M
2020
18
18
0
$7.2M
2021
14
14
0
$5.9M
2022
19
16
3
$9.8M
2023
11
8
3
$4.0M
2024
31
9
22
$12.2M
Permit volume increased 72% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.2%
Carpool
6.1%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
11.0%
Other
1.2%
Based on 3,743 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Iowa statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Iowa at $212 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Iowa statewide averages, not a meter reading for Clear Lake. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Iowa's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Clear Lake is $989/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Iowa statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Iowa statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Clear Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Clear Lake compares to similar-size Iowa cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.