Lake Forest vs Lake Zurich

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

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

Lake Zurich has the higher population (19,727 vs 19,190 in Lake Forest). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($228,120 vs $139,959 in Lake Zurich). Lake Forest has the higher median home value ($909,800 vs $418,300 in Lake Zurich).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
Population	19,190	19,727
Median age	46.1 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$228,120	$139,959
Median home value	$909,800	$418,300
Median gross rent	$2,120	$1,782
Housing units	7,303	7,621
Homeownership rate	89.3%	80.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	80.8%	61.2%
Unemployment rate	2.1%	3.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
Population	19,173 → 19,190 (+0.1%)	19,915 → 19,727 (-0.9%)
Median household income	$172,165 → $228,120 (+32.5%)	$119,349 → $139,959 (+17.3%)
Median home value	$842,900 → $909,800 (+7.9%)	$337,300 → $418,300 (+24.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,831 → $2,120 (+15.8%)	$1,562 → $1,782 (+14.1%)

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

Lake Zurich

Population

19,91519,727

Median household income

$119,349$139,959

Median home value

$337,300$418,300

Median gross rent

$1,562$1,782

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
Under 5	4.4%	5.4%
5 to 17	15.2%	17.5%
18 to 24	12.8%	8.3%
25 to 34	8.5%	10.5%
35 to 44	7.9%	14.1%
45 to 54	11.9%	16.2%
55 to 64	13.4%	14.7%
65 to 74	12.4%	8.8%
75 and over	13.4%	4.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
White (non-Hispanic)	82.4%	82.9%
Black or African American	0.9%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	6.1%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.8%	3.4%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	3.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
No high school diploma	0.9%	2.8%
High school graduate	4.7%	12.2%
Some college or associate's	13.6%	23.8%
Bachelor's degree	37.6%	37.3%
Graduate or professional degree	43.2%	23.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
Drove alone	48.0%	73.2%
Carpooled	2.2%	3.8%
Public transit	13.1%	2.7%
Walked	5.0%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.0%
Worked from home	27.8%	18.5%
Other means	3.2%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
1-unit, detached	76.4%	77.2%
1-unit, attached	7.5%	5.9%
2 to 4 units	2.4%	0.6%
5 to 19 units	1.8%	7.5%
20 or more units	11.9%	8.4%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Lake Forest	Lake Zurich
Poverty rate	4.0%	2.8%
Average household size	2.62	2.66
Mean commute (minutes)	34	28
Median year structure built	1977	1984