City safety & data profile
Lake ForestIL
Lake Forest, IL is a 19K-resident city in Lake County with a median household income of $235,081.
Lake County, Illinois. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lake Forest, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lake Forest has a population larger than 42% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $938,300, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 19K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 43%
- By size
- $235,081
- Median income (place)
- $938,300
- Median home (place)
- 3.5%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Lake Forest
Lake Forest posts a median household income higher than 99% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Lake Forest area.
- Top 1%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Lake Forest
Where Lake Forest income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$235,081 Top 1% higher than 99% 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 Lake Forest, IL beyond the headline numbers
Lake Forest sits inside Lake County, Illinois, at roughly 42.26°N, -87.84°W. Population 19,408, $235,081 median household income. Median home value $938,300, median rent $1,815. Poverty rate 3.5%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Lake Forest, 5/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
Hardship is low by national standards: 3.5% of Lake Forest, IL residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.
A median home in Lake Forest runs about 4.0 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
30.3% of Lake Forest workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 27% in Lake Forest, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.
12.3% of Lake Forest workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
At 46.1 years, Lake Forest's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lake Forest 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 (Lake County): Lake Forest'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 | 3.5% -72% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 1.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 80.5% |
| Work From Home | 30.3% |
| Public Transit | 12.3% |
Population
Health Profile 14 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Lake Forest?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Lake Forest right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet IL-LAKE-FOREST-IL · Lake Forest
Lake Forest: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Lake Forest; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Illinois state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Lake Forest, IL? ▼
What is the median household income in Lake Forest? ▼
What is the median home value in Lake Forest? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Lake Forest? ▼
How many hospitals are in Lake Forest? ▼
What is the median age in Lake Forest? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Lake Forest, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IL (3.5% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IL ($235,081 here).
Compare Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest'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 Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest 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 (Lake 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.