Highland Park vs Waukegan

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

Highland Park 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 30,229 in Highland Park). Highland Park has the higher median household income ($161,875 vs $70,578 in Waukegan). Highland Park has the higher median home value ($594,400 vs $177,600 in Waukegan).

Population, income & housing

	Highland Park	Waukegan
Population	30,229	88,919
Median age	46.0 yrs	34.6 yrs
Median household income	$161,875	$70,578
Median home value	$594,400	$177,600
Median gross rent	$1,903	$1,163
Housing units	12,372	32,842
Homeownership rate	83.7%	50.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	76.1%	21.0%
Unemployment rate	3.3%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Highland Park	Waukegan
Population	29,628 → 30,229 (+2.0%)	87,297 → 88,919 (+1.9%)
Median household income	$150,269 → $161,875 (+7.7%)	$49,803 → $70,578 (+41.7%)
Median home value	$584,500 → $594,400 (+1.7%)	$132,200 → $177,600 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,754 → $1,903 (+8.5%)	$960 → $1,163 (+21.1%)

Highland Park

Population

29,62830,229

Median household income

$150,269$161,875

Median home value

$584,500$594,400

Median gross rent

$1,754$1,903

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)

	Highland Park	Waukegan
Under 5	6.7%	5.5%
5 to 17	17.5%	18.6%
18 to 24	5.3%	10.8%
25 to 34	7.1%	15.6%
35 to 44	12.0%	13.5%
45 to 54	12.7%	12.6%
55 to 64	14.2%	11.6%
65 to 74	14.0%	7.6%
75 and over	10.6%	4.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Highland Park	Waukegan
White (non-Hispanic)	79.7%	18.1%
Black or African American	1.6%	15.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.9%	5.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.9%
Two or more races	3.0%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	12.0%	57.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Highland Park	Waukegan
No high school diploma	2.9%	23.5%
High school graduate	7.7%	30.0%
Some college or associate's	13.3%	25.4%
Bachelor's degree	38.7%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	37.5%	6.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Highland Park	Waukegan
Drove alone	62.2%	69.9%
Carpooled	2.7%	17.2%
Public transit	6.3%	2.5%
Walked	2.4%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.2%
Worked from home	25.2%	6.7%
Other means	0.8%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Highland Park	Waukegan
1-unit, detached	74.6%	51.4%
1-unit, attached	4.8%	7.0%
2 to 4 units	3.7%	13.6%
5 to 19 units	5.3%	14.7%
20 or more units	11.6%	13.1%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Highland Park	Waukegan
Poverty rate	3.3%	15.3%
Average household size	2.54	2.77
Mean commute (minutes)	28	26
Median year structure built	1962	1967