Effingham vs Watson

A side-by-side comparison of Effingham and Watson: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Effingham has the higher population (12,258 vs 616 in Watson). Watson has the higher median household income ($68,625 vs $65,718 in Effingham). Effingham has the higher median home value ($166,700 vs $93,900 in Watson).

Population, income & housing

	Effingham	Watson
Population	12,258	616
Median age	36.9 yrs	41.4 yrs
Median household income	$65,718	$68,625
Median home value	$166,700	$93,900
Median gross rent	$696	$750
Housing units	5,584	244
Homeownership rate	64.3%	82.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.8%	12.1%
Unemployment rate	2.2%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Effingham	Watson
Population	12,563 → 12,258 (-2.4%)	824 → 616 (-25.2%)
Median household income	$47,582 → $65,718 (+38.1%)	$53,750 → $68,625 (+27.7%)
Median home value	$126,800 → $166,700 (+31.5%)	$75,400 → $93,900 (+24.5%)
Median gross rent	$599 → $696 (+16.2%)	$556 → $750 (+34.9%)

Effingham

Population

12,56312,258

Median household income

$47,582$65,718

Median home value

$126,800$166,700

Median gross rent

$599$696

Watson

Population

824616

Median household income

$53,750$68,625

Median home value

$75,400$93,900

Median gross rent

$556$750

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Effingham	Watson
Under 5	6.8%	3.9%
5 to 17	15.9%	18.3%
18 to 24	8.8%	8.3%
25 to 34	15.2%	12.8%
35 to 44	10.6%	11.5%
45 to 54	10.9%	19.6%
55 to 64	12.2%	14.9%
65 to 74	11.3%	8.3%
75 and over	8.3%	2.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Effingham	Watson
White (non-Hispanic)	92.1%	98.9%
Black or African American	1.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.6%	1.1%
Hispanic or Latino	3.7%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Effingham	Watson
No high school diploma	8.1%	10.5%
High school graduate	26.9%	41.4%
Some college or associate's	37.2%	36.0%
Bachelor's degree	17.7%	11.0%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	1.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Effingham	Watson
Drove alone	75.8%	81.3%
Carpooled	8.0%	11.7%
Public transit	0.4%	0.0%
Walked	3.4%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.3%	6.9%
Other means	0.9%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Effingham	Watson
1-unit, detached	67.5%	79.5%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	10.4%	7.8%
5 to 19 units	8.9%	2.9%
20 or more units	6.1%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	5.0%	9.8%

Poverty & households

	Effingham	Watson
Poverty rate	14.8%	20.6%
Average household size	2.28	2.67
Mean commute (minutes)	13	17
Median year structure built	1975	1982