Forest Park vs Western Springs

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

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

Forest Park has the higher population (14,000 vs 13,353 in Western Springs). Western Springs has the higher median household income ($218,839 vs $81,323 in Forest Park). Western Springs has the higher median home value ($691,300 vs $293,800 in Forest Park).

Population, income & housing

	Forest Park	Western Springs
Population	14,000	13,353
Median age	40.0 yrs	41.8 yrs
Median household income	$81,323	$218,839
Median home value	$293,800	$691,300
Median gross rent	$1,352	$1,932
Housing units	7,777	4,568
Homeownership rate	53.6%	95.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	49.8%	82.0%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	2.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest Park	Western Springs
Population	13,927 → 14,000 (+0.5%)	13,272 → 13,353 (+0.6%)
Median household income	$62,664 → $81,323 (+29.8%)	$174,760 → $218,839 (+25.2%)
Median home value	$234,100 → $293,800 (+25.5%)	$609,900 → $691,300 (+13.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,079 → $1,352 (+25.3%)	$2,009 → $1,932 (-3.8%)

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

Western Springs

Population

13,27213,353

Median household income

$174,760$218,839

Median home value

$609,900$691,300

Median gross rent

$2,009$1,932

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest Park	Western Springs
Under 5	6.4%	7.7%
5 to 17	11.0%	24.8%
18 to 24	5.1%	4.6%
25 to 34	14.8%	4.1%
35 to 44	19.9%	13.8%
45 to 54	9.9%	14.4%
55 to 64	15.5%	15.7%
65 to 74	11.8%	7.4%
75 and over	5.7%	7.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest Park	Western Springs
White (non-Hispanic)	53.0%	88.4%
Black or African American	24.8%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	7.2%	2.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.9%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	11.1%	5.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest Park	Western Springs
No high school diploma	4.6%	0.6%
High school graduate	17.4%	7.7%
Some college or associate's	28.3%	9.7%
Bachelor's degree	27.4%	47.3%
Graduate or professional degree	22.4%	34.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest Park	Western Springs
Drove alone	54.9%	57.1%
Carpooled	7.2%	1.6%
Public transit	10.8%	11.3%
Walked	4.5%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.2%
Worked from home	19.0%	27.8%
Other means	2.9%	0.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest Park	Western Springs
1-unit, detached	29.5%	88.7%
1-unit, attached	6.2%	5.5%
2 to 4 units	23.5%	2.2%
5 to 19 units	14.5%	2.0%
20 or more units	25.7%	1.0%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Forest Park	Western Springs
Poverty rate	10.8%	2.0%
Average household size	1.95	2.98
Mean commute (minutes)	29	30
Median year structure built	1949	1960