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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-GURNEE-IL · Gurnee, IL 30,486 pop · income 88th 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 Gurnee
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Gurnee on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Galesburg · lowest
45,213
Galesburg · lowest
45,213 median HH income
24.6% of the leader · rank #1
Vail · near
121,385
Vail · near
121,385 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #2
Vernon · near
121,401
Vernon · near
121,401 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #3
Lake Carmel · near
121,402
Lake Carmel · near
121,402 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #4
Belford · near
121,406
Belford · near
121,406 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #5
Gurnee · this city
121,410
Gurnee · this city
121,410 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #6
Princeton · highest
184,113
Princeton · highest
184,113 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 Gurnee 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: 30,486.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Gurnee - the verdict
Nationally, Gurnee sits in the 88th percentile for household income and the 24th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
88th
percentile, household income
69th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
24th
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: Gurnee, IL
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 30,486 residents in Gurnee, a small city within Illinois. Median household income here is $121,410 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.2%. Gurnee's housing stock carries a median value of $331,100, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. Educational attainment runs 54.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 66.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 53 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 5200% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2410.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Illinois scores 100.0 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,063 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $240 across Illinois, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 23.1 minutes, with 72.2% driving alone and 17.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Gurnee'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 comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Gurnee, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Gurnee?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Niles (30,262 residents, $78,563 income); Highland Park (30,229 residents, $161,875 income); North Chicago (30,772 residents, $56,815 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lafayette, CO (30,471 residents); Morrisville, NC (30,471 residents); Ferry Pass, FL (30,467 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.
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.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -192 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 53 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Gurnee?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.1 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Gurnee?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Gurnee?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2410.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2243.6
Violent rate
166.4
Total reported rate
2410.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 54.4% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
6
Bachelor's degree+
54.4%
Poverty estimate
2.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B
City profile score · Gurnee, IL
70/100
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
54.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A
$121,410
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A-
2.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
166 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Gurnee profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 54.4%
Household income: 86/100 (A) · $121,410
Poverty rate: 84/100 (A-) · 2.2%
Violent crime: 54/100 (C-) · 166 /100k
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Gurnee sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Gurnee'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 - Gurnee highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Gurnee, IL (this city): home $331,100, crime 2,410/100k
Lafayette, CO : home $647,600, crime 2,953/100k
Morrisville, NC : home $481,800, crime 2,533/100k
Princeton, NJ : home $1,040,400, crime 765/100k
Burlingame, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 2,209/100k
Liberty, MO : home $267,900, crime 1,775/100k
Niles, IL : home $350,900, crime 2,278/100k
Highland Park, IL : home $594,400, crime 861/100k
North Chicago, IL : home $147,800, crime 742/100k
Algonquin, IL : home $324,000, crime 1,238/100k
Galesburg, IL : home $89,800, crime 3,478/100k
Mundelein, IL : home $285,600, crime 772/100k
How does Gurnee compare to other US cities?
Here's how Gurnee stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income88% higher than other cities
Home value69% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety24% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Illinois alone, Gurnee ranks #391 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Gurnee 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 Gurnee near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Gurnee ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Gurnee only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#104 of 1,311
92nd percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#110 of 1,315
92nd percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#1,099 of 1,335
17th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#89 of 1,336
93rd 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
88th percentile nationally for median household income · 24th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Gurnee's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Gurnee'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 Gurnee's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$331,10031st percentilemore affordable than 31% 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
Gurnee's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,173 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#583 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Gurnee sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,173 of 15,516 and #583 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
$121,410Gurnee, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Gurnee, 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 Gurnee, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)54.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
30,486
Median Income
$121,410
Median Home Value
$331,100
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
2.2%
Labor force participation
66.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
54.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2410.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
166.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2243.6
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Gurnee's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
30,650 residents
2021
30,556 residents
2022
30,411 residents
2023
30,376 residents
2024
30,400 residents
2025
30,458 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
53
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
51
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.7
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
3
3
0
$0.5M
2021
1
1
0
$0.7M
2022
2
2
0
$0.6M
2023
4
4
0
$3.1M
2024
53
2
51
$7.0M
Permit volume increased 5200% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.1 minutes
Drive Alone
72.2%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
0.3%
Work from Home
17.8%
Other
0.8%
Based on 16,742 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 Gurnee. 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 Gurnee 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 Gurnee sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Gurnee 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.