Another notable thing is that Big Lake is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Big Lake has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Big Lake has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Big Lake than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Big Lake may be for you.
One of the nice things about Big Lake is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
In Big Lake, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 36.37 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
As is often the case in a small town, Big Lake doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The percentage of adults in Big Lake who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 19.73% of the adults in Big Lake have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Big Lake in 2022 was $40,697, which is upper middle income relative to Alaska and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $162,788 for a family of four. However, Big Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Big Lake is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Big Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Big Lake residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Big Lake include German, Irish, English, Scots-Irish, and Swedish.
The most common language spoken in Big Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
