Carpentersville vs South Elgin

A side-by-side comparison of Carpentersville and South Elgin: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Carpentersville has the higher population (37,544 vs 23,984 in South Elgin). South Elgin has the higher median household income ($123,744 vs $86,327 in Carpentersville). South Elgin has the higher median home value ($296,100 vs $225,200 in Carpentersville).

Population, income & housing

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
Population	37,544	23,984
Median age	33.8 yrs	39.2 yrs
Median household income	$86,327	$123,744
Median home value	$225,200	$296,100
Median gross rent	$1,420	$1,619
Housing units	12,023	8,614
Homeownership rate	73.0%	81.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.0%	38.4%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	2.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
Population	37,872 → 37,544 (-0.9%)	23,039 → 23,984 (+4.1%)
Median household income	$68,997 → $86,327 (+25.1%)	$99,451 → $123,744 (+24.4%)
Median home value	$171,600 → $225,200 (+31.2%)	$235,500 → $296,100 (+25.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,161 → $1,420 (+22.3%)	$1,415 → $1,619 (+14.4%)

Carpentersville

Population

37,87237,544

Median household income

$68,997$86,327

Median home value

$171,600$225,200

Median gross rent

$1,161$1,420

South Elgin

Population

23,03923,984

Median household income

$99,451$123,744

Median home value

$235,500$296,100

Median gross rent

$1,415$1,619

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
Under 5	6.5%	4.1%
5 to 17	21.3%	19.8%
18 to 24	11.2%	7.9%
25 to 34	13.2%	10.4%
35 to 44	11.9%	15.9%
45 to 54	14.9%	19.5%
55 to 64	11.5%	10.6%
65 to 74	7.0%	6.7%
75 and over	2.4%	5.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
White (non-Hispanic)	32.1%	56.6%
Black or African American	4.9%	5.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	4.0%	11.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.3%
Two or more races	2.9%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	56.0%	21.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
No high school diploma	23.7%	9.3%
High school graduate	28.3%	25.0%
Some college or associate's	24.0%	27.3%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	24.9%
Graduate or professional degree	7.3%	13.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
Drove alone	73.9%	74.0%
Carpooled	12.4%	9.3%
Public transit	1.1%	1.3%
Walked	1.1%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.9%	13.2%
Other means	2.6%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
1-unit, detached	67.3%	67.7%
1-unit, attached	17.2%	15.2%
2 to 4 units	1.8%	5.1%
5 to 19 units	11.6%	4.5%
20 or more units	1.9%	6.8%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	Carpentersville	South Elgin
Poverty rate	9.7%	6.4%
Average household size	3.21	2.81
Mean commute (minutes)	30	29
Median year structure built	1977	1996