Deerfield vs Lake Forest

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

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

Lake Forest has the higher population (19,190 vs 19,185 in Deerfield). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($228,120 vs $189,705 in Deerfield). Lake Forest has the higher median home value ($909,800 vs $608,600 in Deerfield).

Population, income & housing

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
Population	19,185	19,190
Median age	44.5 yrs	46.1 yrs
Median household income	$189,705	$228,120
Median home value	$608,600	$909,800
Median gross rent	$2,345	$2,120
Housing units	7,705	7,303
Homeownership rate	83.3%	89.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	82.7%	80.8%
Unemployment rate	2.4%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
Population	19,006 → 19,185 (+0.9%)	19,173 → 19,190 (+0.1%)
Median household income	$153,431 → $189,705 (+23.6%)	$172,165 → $228,120 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$518,500 → $608,600 (+17.4%)	$842,900 → $909,800 (+7.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,875 → $2,345 (+25.1%)	$1,831 → $2,120 (+15.8%)

Deerfield

Population

19,00619,185

Median household income

$153,431$189,705

Median home value

$518,500$608,600

Median gross rent

$1,875$2,345

Lake Forest

Population

19,17319,190

Median household income

$172,165$228,120

Median home value

$842,900$909,800

Median gross rent

$1,831$2,120

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
Under 5	4.4%	4.4%
5 to 17	19.9%	15.2%
18 to 24	6.7%	12.8%
25 to 34	7.5%	8.5%
35 to 44	12.4%	7.9%
45 to 54	16.0%	11.9%
55 to 64	15.5%	13.4%
65 to 74	9.4%	12.4%
75 and over	8.3%	13.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	86.7%	82.4%
Black or African American	0.3%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	5.8%	6.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.9%
Two or more races	1.9%	4.8%
Hispanic or Latino	5.0%	4.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
No high school diploma	1.3%	0.9%
High school graduate	3.8%	4.7%
Some college or associate's	12.1%	13.6%
Bachelor's degree	41.6%	37.6%
Graduate or professional degree	41.1%	43.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
Drove alone	62.4%	48.0%
Carpooled	3.8%	2.2%
Public transit	7.0%	13.1%
Walked	0.8%	5.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.6%
Worked from home	25.2%	27.8%
Other means	0.7%	3.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
1-unit, detached	76.8%	76.4%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	7.5%
2 to 4 units	2.3%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	3.3%	1.8%
20 or more units	13.7%	11.9%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Deerfield	Lake Forest
Poverty rate	2.5%	4.0%
Average household size	2.57	2.62
Mean commute (minutes)	29	34
Median year structure built	1969	1977