Charleston vs Oakland

A side-by-side comparison of Charleston and Oakland: population, income, housing, and more.

Charleston and Oakland are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Charleston has the higher population (17,212 vs 948 in Oakland). Oakland has the higher median household income ($49,571 vs $49,057 in Charleston). Charleston has the higher median home value ($133,700 vs $97,200 in Oakland).

Population, income & housing

	Charleston	Oakland
Population	17,212	948
Median age	28.8 yrs	48.9 yrs
Median household income	$49,057	$49,571
Median home value	$133,700	$97,200
Median gross rent	$819	$509
Housing units	8,411	537
Homeownership rate	46.7%	78.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.2%	18.1%
Unemployment rate	5.9%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Charleston	Oakland
Population	20,464 → 17,212 (-15.9%)	962 → 948 (-1.5%)
Median household income	$40,863 → $49,057 (+20.1%)	$54,583 → $49,571 (-9.2%)
Median home value	$104,900 → $133,700 (+27.5%)	$73,500 → $97,200 (+32.2%)
Median gross rent	$723 → $819 (+13.3%)	$669 → $509 (-23.9%)

Charleston

Population

20,46417,212

Median household income

$40,863$49,057

Median home value

$104,900$133,700

Median gross rent

$723$819

Oakland

Population

962948

Median household income

$54,583$49,571

Median home value

$73,500$97,200

Median gross rent

$669$509

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Charleston	Oakland
Under 5	4.2%	2.6%
5 to 17	7.9%	21.3%
18 to 24	32.6%	2.7%
25 to 34	13.5%	5.5%
35 to 44	8.4%	11.1%
45 to 54	8.6%	14.9%
55 to 64	10.6%	16.9%
65 to 74	6.8%	15.7%
75 and over	7.3%	9.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Charleston	Oakland
White (non-Hispanic)	82.6%	98.3%
Black or African American	7.7%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.3%	0.9%
Hispanic or Latino	4.8%	0.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Charleston	Oakland
No high school diploma	7.6%	4.7%
High school graduate	26.8%	41.2%
Some college or associate's	31.4%	36.0%
Bachelor's degree	18.2%	9.6%
Graduate or professional degree	16.0%	8.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Charleston	Oakland
Drove alone	69.7%	74.8%
Carpooled	7.9%	8.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.8%
Walked	11.2%	2.0%
Bicycle	1.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.1%	10.2%
Other means	0.8%	3.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Charleston	Oakland
1-unit, detached	52.5%	85.7%
1-unit, attached	3.3%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	12.0%	8.9%
5 to 19 units	17.7%	0.0%
20 or more units	11.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.2%	4.8%

Poverty & households

	Charleston	Oakland
Poverty rate	25.3%	11.7%
Average household size	1.93	2.10
Mean commute (minutes)	15	25
Median year structure built	1978	1965