Chicago Ridge vs Forest Park

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

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

Chicago Ridge has the higher population (14,147 vs 14,000 in Forest Park). Forest Park has the higher median household income ($81,323 vs $69,389 in Chicago Ridge). Forest Park has the higher median home value ($293,800 vs $217,800 in Chicago Ridge).

Population, income & housing

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
Population	14,147	14,000
Median age	34.3 yrs	40.0 yrs
Median household income	$69,389	$81,323
Median home value	$217,800	$293,800
Median gross rent	$1,198	$1,352
Housing units	5,840	7,777
Homeownership rate	55.0%	53.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.7%	49.8%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
Population	14,153 → 14,147 (-0.0%)	13,927 → 14,000 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$48,886 → $69,389 (+41.9%)	$62,664 → $81,323 (+29.8%)
Median home value	$160,500 → $217,800 (+35.7%)	$234,100 → $293,800 (+25.5%)
Median gross rent	$996 → $1,198 (+20.3%)	$1,079 → $1,352 (+25.3%)

Chicago Ridge

Population

14,15314,147

Median household income

$48,886$69,389

Median home value

$160,500$217,800

Median gross rent

$996$1,198

Forest Park

Population

13,92714,000

Median household income

$62,664$81,323

Median home value

$234,100$293,800

Median gross rent

$1,079$1,352

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
Under 5	9.8%	6.4%
5 to 17	14.4%	11.0%
18 to 24	6.2%	5.1%
25 to 34	21.1%	14.8%
35 to 44	11.8%	19.9%
45 to 54	9.8%	9.9%
55 to 64	14.4%	15.5%
65 to 74	7.0%	11.8%
75 and over	5.4%	5.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
White (non-Hispanic)	58.9%	53.0%
Black or African American	8.9%	24.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	4.1%	7.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.0%
Two or more races	11.0%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	17.1%	11.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
No high school diploma	9.3%	4.6%
High school graduate	27.7%	17.4%
Some college or associate's	35.3%	28.3%
Bachelor's degree	20.1%	27.4%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	22.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
Drove alone	80.6%	54.9%
Carpooled	5.5%	7.2%
Public transit	2.2%	10.8%
Walked	1.0%	4.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.7%
Worked from home	9.5%	19.0%
Other means	1.2%	2.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
1-unit, detached	33.8%	29.5%
1-unit, attached	2.3%	6.2%
2 to 4 units	3.3%	23.5%
5 to 19 units	53.3%	14.5%
20 or more units	6.9%	25.7%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Chicago Ridge	Forest Park
Poverty rate	17.0%	10.8%
Average household size	2.59	1.95
Mean commute (minutes)	31	29
Median year structure built	1973	1949