Karlstad, MN population, income and ZIP codes

Karlstad city is a very small community in Minnesota, with 622 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #452 of 914 ranked by population — larger than 50% of them. The median age here is 49.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Karlstad city earn a median of $61,324 a year, 21.9% below the national figure of $78,538 and 19% below the $75,469 median for the 361 Minnesota cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 11.8% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Karlstad city is valued at $120,300, 60.3% below the national figure and 50% below the $240,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs $650 a month, 53.8% below the national figure, or roughly $7,800 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 12.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 69.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

With 622 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Karlstad city against its county rather than against national figures.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.