Chicago Heights vs Oak Forest

A side-by-side comparison of Chicago Heights and Oak Forest: population, income, housing, and more.

Chicago Heights and Oak Forest are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Chicago Heights has the higher population (26,938 vs 26,888 in Oak Forest). Oak Forest has the higher median household income ($87,941 vs $57,479 in Chicago Heights). Oak Forest has the higher median home value ($247,800 vs $149,900 in Chicago Heights).

Population, income & housing

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
Population	26,938	26,888
Median age	35.6 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$57,479	$87,941
Median home value	$149,900	$247,800
Median gross rent	$1,035	$1,287
Housing units	10,799	10,732
Homeownership rate	63.2%	79.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.2%	30.1%
Unemployment rate	12.7%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
Population	29,856 → 26,938 (-9.8%)	27,617 → 26,888 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$50,186 → $57,479 (+14.5%)	$76,945 → $87,941 (+14.3%)
Median home value	$105,900 → $149,900 (+41.5%)	$194,200 → $247,800 (+27.6%)
Median gross rent	$940 → $1,035 (+10.1%)	$1,080 → $1,287 (+19.2%)

Chicago Heights

Population

29,85626,938

Median household income

$50,186$57,479

Median home value

$105,900$149,900

Median gross rent

$940$1,035

Oak Forest

Population

27,61726,888

Median household income

$76,945$87,941

Median home value

$194,200$247,800

Median gross rent

$1,080$1,287

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
Under 5	5.3%	4.5%
5 to 17	21.1%	17.3%
18 to 24	11.4%	7.2%
25 to 34	11.0%	12.5%
35 to 44	12.9%	14.1%
45 to 54	13.6%	14.3%
55 to 64	11.7%	13.9%
65 to 74	7.4%	10.7%
75 and over	5.6%	5.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	20.3%	64.8%
Black or African American	39.3%	7.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	5.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.4%
Two or more races	1.9%	3.1%
Hispanic or Latino	37.2%	18.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
No high school diploma	15.1%	7.7%
High school graduate	33.6%	28.7%
Some college or associate's	31.1%	33.5%
Bachelor's degree	14.1%	20.6%
Graduate or professional degree	6.1%	9.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
Drove alone	71.6%	77.2%
Carpooled	13.3%	5.0%
Public transit	5.7%	6.4%
Walked	0.3%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	5.2%	9.6%
Other means	4.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
1-unit, detached	69.2%	68.3%
1-unit, attached	3.0%	4.5%
2 to 4 units	16.9%	3.3%
5 to 19 units	4.2%	20.7%
20 or more units	6.1%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Chicago Heights	Oak Forest
Poverty rate	24.7%	5.4%
Average household size	2.84	2.59
Mean commute (minutes)	32	31
Median year structure built	1958	1975