City safety & data profile
SterlingIL
Sterling, IL is a 15K-resident city in Whiteside County with a median household income of $57,350.
Whiteside County, Illinois. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Sterling, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Sterling has a population larger than 27% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $108,700, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 15K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 28%
- By size
- $57,350
- Median income (place)
- $108,700
- Median home (place)
- 15.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Sterling
Sterling posts a median household income higher than 19% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Sterling area.
- Bottom 20%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Sterling
Where Sterling income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$57,350 Bottom 19% higher than 19% 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 Sterling, IL beyond the headline numbers
Sterling sits inside Whiteside County, Illinois, at roughly 41.79°N, -89.70°W. Population 15,057, $57,350 median household income. Median home value $108,700, median rent $859. Poverty rate 15.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Sterling, 1/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
Poverty in Sterling, IL stands at 15.3%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Sterling runs about 1.9 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 5.8% of Sterling workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, coronary heart disease departs furthest from its peer median: 7.5% in Sterling, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,757 cities reporting that measure.
At 42.6 years, Sterling'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 Sterling 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 (Whiteside County): Sterling'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 | 15.3% +23% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 21.1% |
| Work From Home | 5.8% |
| Public Transit | 0.3% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Sterling?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Sterling right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet IL-STERLING-IL · Sterling
Sterling: 1 tagged alert; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 1 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Houston
Tagged alert mix: Sterling
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Sterling.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Sterling; 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 (1 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Sterling, IL? ▼
What is the median household income in Sterling? ▼
What is the median home value in Sterling? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Sterling? ▼
How many hospitals are in Sterling? ▼
What is the median age in Sterling? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Sterling, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IL (15.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IL ($57,350 here).
Compare Sterling 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 Sterling'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 Sterling 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 Sterling 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 (Whiteside 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.