Alton vs Glen Carbon

A side-by-side comparison of Alton and Glen Carbon: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Alton has the higher population (25,430 vs 13,521 in Glen Carbon). Glen Carbon has the higher median household income ($92,434 vs $53,005 in Alton). Glen Carbon has the higher median home value ($278,200 vs $99,500 in Alton).

Population, income & housing

	Alton	Glen Carbon
Population	25,430	13,521
Median age	38.4 yrs	39.2 yrs
Median household income	$53,005	$92,434
Median home value	$99,500	$278,200
Median gross rent	$948	$1,088
Housing units	12,513	5,734
Homeownership rate	57.1%	64.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.2%	51.9%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	4.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Alton	Glen Carbon
Population	26,640 → 25,430 (-4.5%)	12,569 → 13,521 (+7.6%)
Median household income	$40,211 → $53,005 (+31.8%)	$89,236 → $92,434 (+3.6%)
Median home value	$79,900 → $99,500 (+24.5%)	$226,500 → $278,200 (+22.8%)
Median gross rent	$773 → $948 (+22.6%)	$990 → $1,088 (+9.9%)

Alton

Population

26,64025,430

Median household income

$40,211$53,005

Median home value

$79,900$99,500

Median gross rent

$773$948

Glen Carbon

Population

12,56913,521

Median household income

$89,236$92,434

Median home value

$226,500$278,200

Median gross rent

$990$1,088

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Alton	Glen Carbon
Under 5	5.9%	6.5%
5 to 17	17.3%	16.9%
18 to 24	7.6%	8.3%
25 to 34	14.5%	12.5%
35 to 44	13.3%	15.0%
45 to 54	12.7%	11.1%
55 to 64	11.5%	10.2%
65 to 74	10.9%	10.5%
75 and over	6.4%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Alton	Glen Carbon
White (non-Hispanic)	65.7%	82.2%
Black or African American	24.0%	9.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.1%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.9%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	2.7%	4.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Alton	Glen Carbon
No high school diploma	9.2%	3.2%
High school graduate	31.1%	16.5%
Some college or associate's	38.6%	28.5%
Bachelor's degree	13.6%	30.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	21.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Alton	Glen Carbon
Drove alone	76.1%	74.6%
Carpooled	9.9%	3.3%
Public transit	1.6%	0.6%
Walked	2.2%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.4%	19.6%
Other means	1.8%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Alton	Glen Carbon
1-unit, detached	75.1%	66.5%
1-unit, attached	1.3%	6.7%
2 to 4 units	11.0%	14.0%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	4.2%
20 or more units	6.2%	6.6%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Alton	Glen Carbon
Poverty rate	24.5%	5.5%
Average household size	2.30	2.38
Mean commute (minutes)	24	25
Median year structure built	1953	1989