Grayslake vs Lake Forest

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

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

Grayslake has the higher population (20,707 vs 19,190 in Lake Forest). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($228,120 vs $113,697 in Grayslake). Lake Forest has the higher median home value ($909,800 vs $293,900 in Grayslake).

Population, income & housing

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
Population	20,707	19,190
Median age	35.9 yrs	46.1 yrs
Median household income	$113,697	$228,120
Median home value	$293,900	$909,800
Median gross rent	$1,434	$2,120
Housing units	8,268	7,303
Homeownership rate	76.3%	89.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	59.1%	80.8%
Unemployment rate	5.7%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
Population	20,720 → 20,707 (-0.1%)	19,173 → 19,190 (+0.1%)
Median household income	$97,265 → $113,697 (+16.9%)	$172,165 → $228,120 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$235,400 → $293,900 (+24.9%)	$842,900 → $909,800 (+7.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,160 → $1,434 (+23.6%)	$1,831 → $2,120 (+15.8%)

Grayslake

Population

20,72020,707

Median household income

$97,265$113,697

Median home value

$235,400$293,900

Median gross rent

$1,160$1,434

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)

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
Under 5	6.7%	4.4%
5 to 17	16.6%	15.2%
18 to 24	11.0%	12.8%
25 to 34	14.6%	8.5%
35 to 44	13.5%	7.9%
45 to 54	11.9%	11.9%
55 to 64	13.4%	13.4%
65 to 74	7.6%	12.4%
75 and over	4.8%	13.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	70.1%	82.4%
Black or African American	8.6%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	3.9%	6.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.9%
Two or more races	5.0%	4.8%
Hispanic or Latino	12.3%	4.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
No high school diploma	2.8%	0.9%
High school graduate	11.2%	4.7%
Some college or associate's	26.8%	13.6%
Bachelor's degree	36.8%	37.6%
Graduate or professional degree	22.3%	43.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
Drove alone	70.2%	48.0%
Carpooled	8.6%	2.2%
Public transit	2.2%	13.1%
Walked	0.8%	5.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.6%
Worked from home	17.3%	27.8%
Other means	0.8%	3.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
1-unit, detached	56.7%	76.4%
1-unit, attached	21.5%	7.5%
2 to 4 units	3.1%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	12.7%	1.8%
20 or more units	6.1%	11.9%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Grayslake	Lake Forest
Poverty rate	5.6%	4.0%
Average household size	2.59	2.62
Mean commute (minutes)	27	34
Median year structure built	1994	1977