Coal City vs Gardner

A side-by-side comparison of Coal City and Gardner: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Coal City has the higher population (5,145 vs 1,319 in Gardner). Gardner has the higher median household income ($82,125 vs $73,030 in Coal City). Coal City has the higher median home value ($211,600 vs $183,300 in Gardner).

Population, income & housing

	Coal City	Gardner
Population	5,145	1,319
Median age	42.3 yrs	38.5 yrs
Median household income	$73,030	$82,125
Median home value	$211,600	$183,300
Median gross rent	$1,064	$1,024
Housing units	2,026	524
Homeownership rate	80.7%	77.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.9%	17.4%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	12.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Coal City	Gardner
Population	5,294 → 5,145 (-2.8%)	1,334 → 1,319 (-1.1%)
Median household income	$74,755 → $73,030 (-2.3%)	$68,333 → $82,125 (+20.2%)
Median home value	$197,100 → $211,600 (+7.4%)	$138,000 → $183,300 (+32.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,006 → $1,064 (+5.8%)	$944 → $1,024 (+8.5%)

Coal City

Population

5,2945,145

Median household income

$74,755$73,030

Median home value

$197,100$211,600

Median gross rent

$1,006$1,064

Gardner

Population

1,3341,319

Median household income

$68,333$82,125

Median home value

$138,000$183,300

Median gross rent

$944$1,024

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Coal City	Gardner
Under 5	3.9%	5.2%
5 to 17	21.4%	14.6%
18 to 24	7.6%	12.1%
25 to 34	8.3%	15.5%
35 to 44	14.0%	13.5%
45 to 54	12.7%	14.9%
55 to 64	12.9%	9.4%
65 to 74	15.0%	7.9%
75 and over	4.2%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Coal City	Gardner
White (non-Hispanic)	90.2%	82.6%
Black or African American	0.8%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.4%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	7.5%	13.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Coal City	Gardner
No high school diploma	10.4%	8.2%
High school graduate	35.5%	45.4%
Some college or associate's	29.2%	29.0%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	15.6%
Graduate or professional degree	8.1%	1.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Coal City	Gardner
Drove alone	80.9%	95.7%
Carpooled	1.8%	2.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.6%	0.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.4%
Worked from home	13.2%	0.3%
Other means	1.5%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Coal City	Gardner
1-unit, detached	68.0%	79.4%
1-unit, attached	18.0%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	11.1%	14.5%
5 to 19 units	2.4%	1.7%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Coal City	Gardner
Poverty rate	4.7%	15.2%
Average household size	2.66	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	27	30
Median year structure built	1984	1967