Fairbury vs Pontiac

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

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

Pontiac has the higher population (11,483 vs 3,683 in Fairbury). Fairbury has the higher median household income ($65,215 vs $59,579 in Pontiac). Fairbury has the higher median home value ($155,900 vs $110,200 in Pontiac).

Population, income & housing

	Fairbury	Pontiac
Population	3,683	11,483
Median age	39.5 yrs	43.4 yrs
Median household income	$65,215	$59,579
Median home value	$155,900	$110,200
Median gross rent	$750	$818
Housing units	1,631	5,106
Homeownership rate	67.4%	65.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.2%	16.1%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fairbury	Pontiac
Population	3,571 → 3,683 (+3.1%)	11,688 → 11,483 (-1.8%)
Median household income	$54,833 → $65,215 (+18.9%)	$45,285 → $59,579 (+31.6%)
Median home value	$105,600 → $155,900 (+47.6%)	$97,000 → $110,200 (+13.6%)
Median gross rent	$698 → $750 (+7.4%)	$715 → $818 (+14.4%)

Fairbury

Population

3,5713,683

Median household income

$54,833$65,215

Median home value

$105,600$155,900

Median gross rent

$698$750

Pontiac

Population

11,68811,483

Median household income

$45,285$59,579

Median home value

$97,000$110,200

Median gross rent

$715$818

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fairbury	Pontiac
Under 5	6.1%	4.6%
5 to 17	22.6%	12.8%
18 to 24	7.1%	7.0%
25 to 34	11.2%	12.3%
35 to 44	10.8%	15.2%
45 to 54	9.5%	11.4%
55 to 64	12.2%	15.9%
65 to 74	10.9%	12.0%
75 and over	9.5%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fairbury	Pontiac
White (non-Hispanic)	92.2%	82.3%
Black or African American	1.5%	8.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	1.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.1%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	4.2%	5.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fairbury	Pontiac
No high school diploma	8.5%	15.0%
High school graduate	40.8%	40.9%
Some college or associate's	29.6%	28.0%
Bachelor's degree	18.5%	9.2%
Graduate or professional degree	2.7%	6.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fairbury	Pontiac
Drove alone	80.0%	77.9%
Carpooled	2.0%	9.4%
Public transit	0.9%	0.0%
Walked	5.3%	3.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	2.3%
Worked from home	10.9%	6.1%
Other means	0.0%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fairbury	Pontiac
1-unit, detached	76.2%	64.8%
1-unit, attached	1.2%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	12.1%	11.2%
5 to 19 units	9.1%	7.9%
20 or more units	0.0%	6.5%
Mobile home & other	1.3%	6.5%

Poverty & households

	Fairbury	Pontiac
Poverty rate	3.6%	9.9%
Average household size	2.35	2.09
Mean commute (minutes)	16	17
Median year structure built	1962	1965