Benton vs West Frankfort

A side-by-side comparison of Benton and West Frankfort: population, income, housing, and more.

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

West Frankfort has the higher population (7,156 vs 7,076 in Benton). Benton has the higher median household income ($51,349 vs $48,143 in West Frankfort). Benton has the higher median home value ($85,100 vs $72,500 in West Frankfort).

Population, income & housing

	Benton	West Frankfort
Population	7,076	7,156
Median age	42.2 yrs	39.9 yrs
Median household income	$51,349	$48,143
Median home value	$85,100	$72,500
Median gross rent	$776	$673
Housing units	3,488	3,628
Homeownership rate	62.9%	63.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.5%	11.2%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	12.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Benton	West Frankfort
Population	6,971 → 7,076 (+1.5%)	7,715 → 7,156 (-7.2%)
Median household income	$41,149 → $51,349 (+24.8%)	$30,430 → $48,143 (+58.2%)
Median home value	$72,300 → $85,100 (+17.7%)	$62,700 → $72,500 (+15.6%)
Median gross rent	$667 → $776 (+16.3%)	$535 → $673 (+25.8%)

Benton

Population

6,9717,076

Median household income

$41,149$51,349

Median home value

$72,300$85,100

Median gross rent

$667$776

West Frankfort

Population

7,7157,156

Median household income

$30,430$48,143

Median home value

$62,700$72,500

Median gross rent

$535$673

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Benton	West Frankfort
Under 5	5.6%	5.2%
5 to 17	17.4%	18.3%
18 to 24	6.3%	9.5%
25 to 34	12.7%	11.5%
35 to 44	10.6%	14.4%
45 to 54	11.7%	13.4%
55 to 64	11.1%	12.6%
65 to 74	14.3%	8.0%
75 and over	10.3%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Benton	West Frankfort
White (non-Hispanic)	89.4%	96.1%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.8%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.7%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	4.0%	1.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Benton	West Frankfort
No high school diploma	14.5%	15.4%
High school graduate	30.0%	36.1%
Some college or associate's	37.0%	37.3%
Bachelor's degree	13.5%	6.0%
Graduate or professional degree	5.0%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Benton	West Frankfort
Drove alone	72.7%	80.7%
Carpooled	14.9%	7.9%
Public transit	0.4%	1.6%
Walked	0.5%	3.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.8%	4.6%
Other means	1.6%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Benton	West Frankfort
1-unit, detached	74.8%	78.9%
1-unit, attached	2.4%	0.7%
2 to 4 units	14.5%	9.3%
5 to 19 units	2.5%	1.7%
20 or more units	2.2%	4.2%
Mobile home & other	3.6%	5.2%

Poverty & households

	Benton	West Frankfort
Poverty rate	17.9%	25.2%
Average household size	2.25	2.30
Mean commute (minutes)	23	23
Median year structure built	1958	1960