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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-RED-LAKE-MN · Red Lake, MN 1,506 pop · income 27th pct · 14 tracts
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 Red Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Red Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cannelton · lowest
35,900
Cannelton · lowest
35,900 median HH income
26.2% of the leader · rank #1
Red Lake · this city
55,092
Red Lake · this city
55,092 median HH income
40.2% of the leader · rank #2
Montague · near
55,096
Montague · near
55,096 median HH income
40.2% of the leader · rank #3
Ridge Manor · near
55,096
Ridge Manor · near
55,096 median HH income
40.2% of the leader · rank #4
Bryant · near
55,096
Bryant · near
55,096 median HH income
40.2% of the leader · rank #5
Carterville · near
55,099
Carterville · near
55,099 median HH income
40.2% of the leader · rank #6
Belleair Beach · highest
137,045
Belleair Beach · highest
137,045 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Red Lake on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 1,506.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Red Lake places in the 27th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
27th
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Red Lake, MN
1,506 people live in Red Lake, Minnesota - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Red Lake brings in $55,092 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 40.9%. Typical homes in Red Lake are valued around $136,000, and the median resident age is 28.2 years. About 10.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 46.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 8 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Minnesota tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Minnesota scores 98.6 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,125 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Minnesota, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 42.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Red 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 housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Red Lake, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Red Lake?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 40.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 10.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Red Lake?
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.
Within Minnesota, the closest population matches are Madison (1,507 residents, $56,435 income); Lakeland (1,510 residents, $101,339 income); Clara City (1,497 residents, $58,431 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Susitna North, AK (1,506 residents); Belleair Beach, FL (1,506 residents); Cannelton, IN (1,506 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.
PlainCities matches 14 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Red Lake?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
80.4%
Work from home
3.8%
Public transit
7.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 470 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 40.9% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
F
City profile score · Red Lake, MN
21/100
4 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 D
98.6 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$55,092
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
40.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Red Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $55,092
Bachelor's+ share: 7/100 (F) · 10.3%
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 40.9%
How does Red Lake compare to other US cities?
Where Red Lake sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Red Lake against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Minnesota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Minnesota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Red Lake near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Red Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Red Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#596 of 775
23rd percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#508 of 774
34th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#7 of 785
99th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#675 of 784
14th percentile in Minnesota
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 Minnesota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
27th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Red Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$136,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Red Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,838 of 15,516
More affordable than 75% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,472 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Red Lake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,838 of 15,516 and #3,472 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$55,092Red Lake, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Red Lake, MN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Red Lake, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)40.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,506
Median Income
$55,092
Median Home Value
$136,000
Median Age
28.2
Poverty Rate
40.9%
Labor force participation
46.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.3%
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.4%
Carpool
7.9%
Public Transit
7.9%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.8%
Based on 470 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Minnesota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Minnesota at $225 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Minnesota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Red Lake. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Minnesota's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.6 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Red Lake is $1,125/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Minnesota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 42.4 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Minnesota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Red Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Red Lake compares to similar-size Minnesota 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, NCES CCD, 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.