Fairbury vs Forrest

A side-by-side comparison of Fairbury and Forrest: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Fairbury has the higher population (3,683 vs 1,008 in Forrest). Forrest has the higher median household income ($70,417 vs $65,215 in Fairbury). Fairbury has the higher median home value ($155,900 vs $104,000 in Forrest).

Population, income & housing

	Fairbury	Forrest
Population	3,683	1,008
Median age	39.5 yrs	32.6 yrs
Median household income	$65,215	$70,417
Median home value	$155,900	$104,000
Median gross rent	$750	$663
Housing units	1,631	472
Homeownership rate	67.4%	79.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.2%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	0.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fairbury	Forrest
Population	3,571 → 3,683 (+3.1%)	1,058 → 1,008 (-4.7%)
Median household income	$54,833 → $65,215 (+18.9%)	$58,839 → $70,417 (+19.7%)
Median home value	$105,600 → $155,900 (+47.6%)	$94,100 → $104,000 (+10.5%)
Median gross rent	$698 → $750 (+7.4%)	$625 → $663 (+6.1%)

Fairbury

Population

3,5713,683

Median household income

$54,833$65,215

Median home value

$105,600$155,900

Median gross rent

$698$750

Forrest

Population

1,0581,008

Median household income

$58,839$70,417

Median home value

$94,100$104,000

Median gross rent

$625$663

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fairbury	Forrest
Under 5	6.1%	6.3%
5 to 17	22.6%	18.4%
18 to 24	7.1%	10.9%
25 to 34	11.2%	17.8%
35 to 44	10.8%	5.7%
45 to 54	9.5%	13.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	10.0%
65 to 74	10.9%	10.1%
75 and over	9.5%	7.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fairbury	Forrest
White (non-Hispanic)	92.2%	92.9%
Black or African American	1.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.3%
Two or more races	2.1%	2.2%
Hispanic or Latino	4.2%	3.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fairbury	Forrest
No high school diploma	8.5%	9.8%
High school graduate	40.8%	33.8%
Some college or associate's	29.6%	37.8%
Bachelor's degree	18.5%	12.2%
Graduate or professional degree	2.7%	6.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fairbury	Forrest
Drove alone	80.0%	87.0%
Carpooled	2.0%	6.2%
Public transit	0.9%	0.0%
Walked	5.3%	0.4%
Bicycle	1.0%	1.6%
Worked from home	10.9%	4.7%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fairbury	Forrest
1-unit, detached	76.2%	84.5%
1-unit, attached	1.2%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	12.1%	10.2%
5 to 19 units	9.1%	5.3%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.3%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Fairbury	Forrest
Poverty rate	3.6%	14.7%
Average household size	2.35	2.24
Mean commute (minutes)	16	30
Median year structure built	1962	1956