Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetIL-GRAYSLAKE-IL · Grayslake, IL 20,707 pop · income 85th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Grayslake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Grayslake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
West Pensacola · lowest
38,641
West Pensacola · lowest
38,641 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #1
Pompton Plains · near
113,661
Pompton Plains · near
113,661 median HH income
70.0% of the leader · rank #2
Wylie · near
113,661
Wylie · near
113,661 median HH income
70.0% of the leader · rank #3
St. James · near
113,670
St. James · near
113,670 median HH income
70.0% of the leader · rank #4
DeCordova · near
113,676
DeCordova · near
113,676 median HH income
70.1% of the leader · rank #5
Grayslake · this city
113,697
Grayslake · this city
113,697 median HH income
70.1% of the leader · rank #6
Libertyville · highest
162,270
Libertyville · highest
162,270 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Grayslake on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 20,707.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Grayslake - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Grayslake places in the 85th percentile for household income and the 76th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
85th
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
76th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Grayslake, IL
Illinois's Grayslake is a small city, with 20,707 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Grayslake households earn a median of $113,697 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.1%. Typical homes in Grayslake are valued around $293,900, and the median resident age is 35.9 years. 59.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 8 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 700% from five years earlier. Grayslake reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 706.7 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Illinois at 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,063 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 54.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Grayslake's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to reported crime to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Grayslake, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Grayslake?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Grayslake?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 706.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 69% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
What does the education layer cover for Grayslake?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 59.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Which cities make useful reference points for Grayslake?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are East Moline (20,837 residents, $63,328 income); Park Forest (20,898 residents, $62,305 income); Libertyville (20,493 residents, $162,270 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Montrose, CO (20,703 residents); Wade Hampton, SC (20,703 residents); Lockport, NY (20,699 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Population change
Is Grayslake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -84 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
21,224
2025 estimate
21,140
Period change
-0.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Grayslake?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
70.2%
Work from home
17.3%
Public transit
2.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 11,615 workers age 16+.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B
City profile score · Grayslake, IL
73/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A+
59.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$113,697
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A-
66 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B
4.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living D
100.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Grayslake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 59.1%
Household income: 83/100 (A-) · $113,697
Violent crime: 80/100 (A-) · 66 /100k
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.1%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Grayslake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Grayslake's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Grayslake highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Grayslake, IL (this city): home $293,900, crime 707/100k
Montrose, CO : home $359,000, crime 2,451/100k
Marquette, MI : home $254,100, crime 697/100k
Forest Lake, MN : home $375,900, crime 1,596/100k
East Moline, IL : home $135,300, crime 2,670/100k
Park Forest, IL : home $106,200, crime 1,791/100k
Libertyville, IL : home $499,300, crime 617/100k
Frankfort, IL : home $461,600, crime 701/100k
South Holland, IL : home $201,200, crime 2,452/100k
How does Grayslake compare to other US cities?
Here's how Grayslake stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income85% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety76% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Illinois and the picture shifts: Grayslake ranks #166 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Grayslake against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Illinois only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Illinois-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Grayslake near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Grayslake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Grayslake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#130 of 1,311
90th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#159 of 1,315
88th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#919 of 1,335
31st percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#69 of 1,336
95th percentile in Illinois
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Illinois only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
85th percentile nationally for median household income · 76th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Grayslake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Grayslake's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Grayslake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$293,90036th percentilemore affordable than 36% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Grayslake's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,433 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#427 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.6×, Grayslake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,433 of 15,516 and #427 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$113,697Grayslake, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Grayslake, IL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Grayslake, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)59.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,707
Median Income
$113,697
Median Home Value
$293,900
Median Age
35.9
Poverty Rate
4.1%
Labor force participation
69.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
59.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
706.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
65.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
640.9
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Grayslake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
21,224 residents
2021
21,159 residents
2022
21,058 residents
2023
21,092 residents
2024
21,169 residents
2025
21,140 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.2M
2020
2
2
0
$0.7M
2021
1
1
0
$0.4M
2022
26
6
20
$5.0M
2023
29
11
18
$6.6M
2024
8
8
0
$2.8M
Permit volume increased 700% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
70.2%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
2.2%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
17.3%
Other
0.9%
Based on 11,615 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Illinois statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $240
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Illinois at $240 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Illinois statewide averages, not a meter reading for Grayslake. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Illinois's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.0 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Grayslake is $1,063/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Illinois statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Illinois statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Grayslake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Grayslake compares to similar-size Illinois cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.