City safety & data profile
CharlestonIL
Charleston, IL is a 21K-resident city in Coles County with a median household income of $49,300.
Coles County, Illinois. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Charleston, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Charleston has a population larger than 47% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $137,400.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 21K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 48%
- By size
- $49,300
- Median income (place)
- $137,400
- Median home (place)
- 26.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Charleston
Charleston posts a median household income higher than 8% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Bottom 9%
- by median income, US cities
Where Charleston income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$49,300 Bottom 8% higher than 8% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in IL
Population among 222 IL places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Chicago
Chicago, IL
2,664,452 residents
- Aurora 200,661
Aurora, IL
200,661 residents
- Rockford 148,278
Rockford, IL
148,278 residents
- Joliet 147,861
Joliet, IL
147,861 residents
- Naperville 147,100
Naperville, IL
147,100 residents
- Peoria 115,070
Peoria, IL
115,070 residents
- Springfield 114,394
Springfield, IL
114,394 residents
- Elgin 112,111
Elgin, IL
112,111 residents
- Waukegan 88,475
Waukegan, IL
88,475 residents
- Champaign 86,096
Champaign, IL
86,096 residents
What this shows Chicago is the largest IL city on this list; Hinsdale leads median income.
Highest median incomes in IL
Median household income among the same 222-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Hinsdale
Hinsdale, IL
$250,001 median
- Winnetka
Winnetka, IL
$250,001 median
- Lake Forest
Lake Forest, IL
$235,081 median
- Western Spri…
Western Springs, IL
$230,255 median
- Wilmette
Wilmette, IL
$190,662 median
- Deerfield
Deerfield, IL
$181,660 median
- Highland Park
Highland Park, IL
$168,094 median
- Libertyville
Libertyville, IL
$165,667 median
- La Grange
La Grange, IL
$159,929 median
- Northbrook
Northbrook, IL
$157,782 median
What this shows Hinsdale posts the highest place-level median income in IL; Chicago is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Charleston, IL beyond the headline numbers
Charleston sits inside Coles County, Illinois, at roughly 39.50°N, -88.18°W. Population 21,196, $49,300 median household income. Median home value $137,400, median rent $817. Poverty rate 26.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
26.3% of Charleston, IL residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Charleston runs about 2.8 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Remote work covers 8.9% of Charleston workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 18.7% in Charleston, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Charleston's median age is 29.6 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Charleston from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Coles County): Charleston's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 26.3% +112% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 6.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 33.3% |
| Work From Home | 8.9% |
| Public Transit | 0.2% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Charleston?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Charleston right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet IL-CHARLESTON-IL · Charleston
Charleston: 3 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 3 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Los Angeles
Tagged alert mix: Charleston
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
3
What this shows 3 tagged notices on record for Charleston.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Los Angeles, CA (3 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Charleston; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Illinois state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (3 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Charleston, IL? ▼
What is the median household income in Charleston? ▼
What is the median home value in Charleston? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Charleston? ▼
What is the median age in Charleston? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Charleston, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IL (26.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IL ($49,300 here).
Compare Charleston with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Charleston's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Charleston area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Charleston against Illinois peers on any ranking lens. Explore Illinois
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Coles County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.