Gurnee vs Waukegan

A side-by-side comparison of Gurnee and Waukegan: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Waukegan has the higher population (88,919 vs 30,486 in Gurnee). Gurnee has the higher median household income ($121,410 vs $70,578 in Waukegan). Gurnee has the higher median home value ($331,100 vs $177,600 in Waukegan).

Population, income & housing

	Gurnee	Waukegan
Population	30,486	88,919
Median age	40.4 yrs	34.6 yrs
Median household income	$121,410	$70,578
Median home value	$331,100	$177,600
Median gross rent	$1,594	$1,163
Housing units	12,055	32,842
Homeownership rate	74.4%	50.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	54.4%	21.0%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Gurnee	Waukegan
Population	30,671 → 30,486 (-0.6%)	87,297 → 88,919 (+1.9%)
Median household income	$96,104 → $121,410 (+26.3%)	$49,803 → $70,578 (+41.7%)
Median home value	$259,500 → $331,100 (+27.6%)	$132,200 → $177,600 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,210 → $1,594 (+31.7%)	$960 → $1,163 (+21.1%)

Gurnee

Population

30,67130,486

Median household income

$96,104$121,410

Median home value

$259,500$331,100

Median gross rent

$1,210$1,594

Waukegan

Population

87,29788,919

Median household income

$49,803$70,578

Median home value

$132,200$177,600

Median gross rent

$960$1,163

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Gurnee	Waukegan
Under 5	3.3%	5.5%
5 to 17	17.4%	18.6%
18 to 24	11.1%	10.8%
25 to 34	12.1%	15.6%
35 to 44	12.3%	13.5%
45 to 54	15.4%	12.6%
55 to 64	13.9%	11.6%
65 to 74	9.7%	7.6%
75 and over	4.7%	4.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Gurnee	Waukegan
White (non-Hispanic)	60.1%	18.1%
Black or African American	7.4%	15.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	12.6%	5.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.9%
Two or more races	3.0%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	16.5%	57.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Gurnee	Waukegan
No high school diploma	4.7%	23.5%
High school graduate	13.8%	30.0%
Some college or associate's	27.2%	25.4%
Bachelor's degree	33.2%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	21.2%	6.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Gurnee	Waukegan
Drove alone	72.2%	69.9%
Carpooled	7.8%	17.2%
Public transit	1.1%	2.5%
Walked	0.3%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	17.8%	6.7%
Other means	0.8%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Gurnee	Waukegan
1-unit, detached	60.1%	51.4%
1-unit, attached	14.6%	7.0%
2 to 4 units	3.8%	13.6%
5 to 19 units	9.7%	14.7%
20 or more units	11.8%	13.1%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Gurnee	Waukegan
Poverty rate	5.5%	15.3%
Average household size	2.60	2.77
Mean commute (minutes)	28	26
Median year structure built	1992	1967