River Forest vs Summit

A side-by-side comparison of River Forest and Summit: population, income, housing, and more.

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

River Forest has the higher population (11,489 vs 10,896 in Summit). River Forest has the higher median household income ($148,711 vs $60,417 in Summit). River Forest has the higher median home value ($676,900 vs $224,800 in Summit).

Population, income & housing

	River Forest	Summit
Population	11,489	10,896
Median age	40.1 yrs	38.5 yrs
Median household income	$148,711	$60,417
Median home value	$676,900	$224,800
Median gross rent	$1,411	$1,012
Housing units	4,494	3,934
Homeownership rate	89.0%	61.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	73.4%	12.1%
Unemployment rate	6.8%	7.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	River Forest	Summit
Population	10,970 → 11,489 (+4.7%)	11,260 → 10,896 (-3.2%)
Median household income	$129,928 → $148,711 (+14.5%)	$47,377 → $60,417 (+27.5%)
Median home value	$596,900 → $676,900 (+13.4%)	$170,800 → $224,800 (+31.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,143 → $1,411 (+23.4%)	$874 → $1,012 (+15.8%)

River Forest

Population

10,97011,489

Median household income

$129,928$148,711

Median home value

$596,900$676,900

Median gross rent

$1,143$1,411

Summit

Population

11,26010,896

Median household income

$47,377$60,417

Median home value

$170,800$224,800

Median gross rent

$874$1,012

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	River Forest	Summit
Under 5	5.8%	6.1%
5 to 17	18.4%	17.6%
18 to 24	10.7%	7.9%
25 to 34	9.1%	14.7%
35 to 44	11.9%	12.6%
45 to 54	13.7%	11.7%
55 to 64	10.6%	12.8%
65 to 74	11.8%	11.2%
75 and over	7.9%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	River Forest	Summit
White (non-Hispanic)	78.3%	12.3%
Black or African American	4.6%	6.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	6.7%	3.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.4%
Two or more races	4.1%	0.4%
Hispanic or Latino	6.4%	75.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	River Forest	Summit
No high school diploma	3.3%	32.0%
High school graduate	7.0%	34.6%
Some college or associate's	16.4%	21.2%
Bachelor's degree	29.9%	9.9%
Graduate or professional degree	43.4%	2.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	River Forest	Summit
Drove alone	46.5%	66.2%
Carpooled	3.6%	18.1%
Public transit	17.8%	9.0%
Walked	6.3%	2.4%
Bicycle	1.7%	0.3%
Worked from home	23.8%	3.4%
Other means	0.2%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	River Forest	Summit
1-unit, detached	60.8%	53.7%
1-unit, attached	5.5%	4.0%
2 to 4 units	5.3%	29.3%
5 to 19 units	15.9%	8.9%
20 or more units	12.5%	3.7%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	River Forest	Summit
Poverty rate	2.2%	12.0%
Average household size	2.47	3.00
Mean commute (minutes)	31	31
Median year structure built	1945	1958