Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,948, settled in 1872.
Moose Lake gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $285K, 4 years of the Duluth metro’s $72K median household income. It grades C overall, 258th among Minnesota's 271 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $64K, and 51% of residents live below the poverty line, and residents are less healthy than 92% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. On the plus side, 12% of its land is conserved. 51% of residents live below the poverty line in Moose Lake, above both the Minnesota town median (7%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). Of the 273 Minnesota towns we compare, none has a lower share of children under 18 than Moose Lake. The biggest park or preserve is Moose Lake State Park, at 247 acres.
Where Moose Lake beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Where Moose Lake’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Minnesota), ordered by how far Moose Lake is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 100 in 1880, 2,789 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 2006 and 2 maps from 1961 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Moose Lake, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Moose Lake.
Moose Lake trades lower home prices for longer drives to work, draws workers from Windemere Township and beyond and has colder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns.
1,738 jobs are based in Moose Lake, 2.1 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
The mean commuting time in Moose Lake is 19 minutes. About one worker in three stays in Moose Lake for work. The top destinations are Duluth (11%), Cloquet (5%) and Minneapolis (3%). Jobs based here fell to 1,738 in 2023, 263 fewer than in 2013.
| Moose Lake | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 29% | 9.7% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $64,000 | $91,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The Moose Lake Public School District runs its public schools. Of its 3 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Lake ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 285 | B− |
| Moose Lake SecondaryLargest public high schoolGrades 7–12 | Grades 7–12 | 276 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MN on state tests and graduation
Only 5 of the 271 Minnesota towns we compare have a higher share of adults 18 to 64 who have no health insurance than Moose Lake. In Moose Lake, 16% of adults have diabetes. No town among the 271 in Minnesota we compare has a higher share of adults who sleep under 7 hours than Moose Lake. CDC measures, 32 in all: Moose Lake beats Minnesota on 1 and trails on 24.
| Moose Lake | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 14% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 47% | 35% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 30% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 23% | 25% |
| What stands out | Moose Lake | MN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 7.5% | 8.5% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 26.9% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Trails run 2.4 miles in 1 park or preserve. Moose Lake’s trail network density is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Moose Lake State Park | — | 247 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
3 flood insurance claims have been paid in Moose Lake since 2012. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 72% of U.S. communities. Of the losses FEMA expects in the town, 68% come from cold waves and 23% from inland flooding.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
January nights average 0.6°, colder than in 96% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 79.2°.
The January low for Moose Lake comes to 1°F. About 64 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Moose Lake | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 1°F | 6°F | 22°F |
| July high | 79°F | 82°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Homes are within reach (about $285K for the typical one, A− for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 24 miles. Home values rose 33% in five years, to about $285K, against 14% across Minnesota.
Typical home values rose 5% in the year to September 2026. Moose Lake: 63% of households are owner-occupiers. For Moose Lake, the rent at the middle of the market is $907 a month.
| Moose Lake | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 63% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $907 a month | $1,199 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Violent crime is rare: 2 reported in 2023. Moose Lake's reported crime rate is well below Minnesota's. Also worth knowing: in Moose Lake, the level of property crime is 1 per 1,000 residents.
| Moose Lake | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 1 per 1,000 residents | 11.2 | 13.1 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1.5 | 1.8 |
FBI crime data, 2023 · crimes reported to police
None within 15 miles of Moose Lake; the nearest are
About 7 of every 100 Moose Lake residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Minnesota.
3 notable people were born in Moose Lake.
City in Minnesota, United States
Moose Lake is a city in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,789 at the 2020 census. Interstate 35, State Highways 27 and 73, County 10, and County 61 are the main routes in Moose Lake. Moose Lake State Park is nearby.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Moose Lake.
| Town | MN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Lake | #258 | C | A− | — | B− | D |
| Moose Lake Township | — | — | B+ | — | B− | C− |
| Silver Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Moose Lake Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Moose Lake and Moose Lake Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Silver Township isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Moose Lake with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Moose Lake grades C overall, better than 29% of U.S. towns and #258 of 271 in Minnesota. It grades D for health and B− for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.
3 notable people were born here, including Dale Eugene Wayrynen and Mark Vichorek.
