Channel Lake vs Forest Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Channel Lake and Forest Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Channel Lake has the higher population (1,988 vs 1,797 in Forest Lake). Forest Lake has the higher median household income ($92,956 vs $63,958 in Channel Lake). Forest Lake has the higher median home value ($318,300 vs $210,400 in Channel Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
Population	1,988	1,797
Median age	34.8 yrs	40.8 yrs
Median household income	$63,958	$92,956
Median home value	$210,400	$318,300
Median gross rent	$1,526	—
Housing units	853	737
Homeownership rate	78.7%	94.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	52.4%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
Population	1,661 → 1,988 (+19.7%)	1,327 → 1,797 (+35.4%)
Median household income	$49,926 → $63,958 (+28.1%)	$125,096 → $92,956 (-25.7%)
Median home value	$173,900 → $210,400 (+21.0%)	$321,200 → $318,300 (-0.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,106 → $1,526 (+38.0%)	—

Channel Lake

Population

1,6611,988

Median household income

$49,926$63,958

Median home value

$173,900$210,400

Median gross rent

$1,106$1,526

Forest Lake

Population

1,3271,797

Median household income

$125,096$92,956

Median home value

$321,200$318,300

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
Under 5	12.3%	0.0%
5 to 17	14.6%	25.8%
18 to 24	3.8%	10.7%
25 to 34	19.8%	2.4%
35 to 44	11.5%	23.7%
45 to 54	6.5%	6.3%
55 to 64	17.5%	26.7%
65 to 74	9.9%	1.4%
75 and over	4.2%	2.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	86.9%	70.9%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	5.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.9%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	4.6%	23.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
No high school diploma	5.2%	25.7%
High school graduate	38.9%	16.2%
Some college or associate's	36.0%	5.7%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%	37.5%
Graduate or professional degree	3.2%	14.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
Drove alone	75.2%	90.4%
Carpooled	8.9%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.4%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	4.8%
Other means	0.0%	4.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
1-unit, detached	98.5%	100.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	1.5%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Channel Lake	Forest Lake
Poverty rate	19.4%	5.3%
Average household size	2.53	2.73
Mean commute (minutes)	33	30
Median year structure built	1962	1994