Alton vs Granite City

A side-by-side comparison of Alton and Granite City: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Granite City has the higher population (26,670 vs 25,430 in Alton). Granite City has the higher median household income ($60,490 vs $53,005 in Alton). Granite City has the higher median home value ($99,800 vs $99,500 in Alton).

Population, income & housing

	Alton	Granite City
Population	25,430	26,670
Median age	38.4 yrs	40.1 yrs
Median household income	$53,005	$60,490
Median home value	$99,500	$99,800
Median gross rent	$948	$761
Housing units	12,513	12,742
Homeownership rate	57.1%	71.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.2%	16.2%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	6.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Alton	Granite City
Population	26,640 → 25,430 (-4.5%)	28,612 → 26,670 (-6.8%)
Median household income	$40,211 → $53,005 (+31.8%)	$51,469 → $60,490 (+17.5%)
Median home value	$79,900 → $99,500 (+24.5%)	$83,500 → $99,800 (+19.5%)
Median gross rent	$773 → $948 (+22.6%)	$728 → $761 (+4.5%)

Alton

Population

26,64025,430

Median household income

$40,211$53,005

Median home value

$79,900$99,500

Median gross rent

$773$948

Granite City

Population

28,61226,670

Median household income

$51,469$60,490

Median home value

$83,500$99,800

Median gross rent

$728$761

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Alton	Granite City
Under 5	5.9%	5.3%
5 to 17	17.3%	16.6%
18 to 24	7.6%	6.6%
25 to 34	14.5%	14.0%
35 to 44	13.3%	13.9%
45 to 54	12.7%	11.3%
55 to 64	11.5%	13.9%
65 to 74	10.9%	11.3%
75 and over	6.4%	7.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Alton	Granite City
White (non-Hispanic)	65.7%	75.9%
Black or African American	24.0%	10.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.1%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	5.9%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	2.7%	7.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Alton	Granite City
No high school diploma	9.2%	11.9%
High school graduate	31.1%	34.1%
Some college or associate's	38.6%	37.8%
Bachelor's degree	13.6%	12.0%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	4.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Alton	Granite City
Drove alone	76.1%	83.5%
Carpooled	9.9%	6.5%
Public transit	1.6%	1.5%
Walked	2.2%	0.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.4%	7.6%
Other means	1.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Alton	Granite City
1-unit, detached	75.1%	81.1%
1-unit, attached	1.3%	1.2%
2 to 4 units	11.0%	9.8%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	2.9%
20 or more units	6.2%	4.2%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Alton	Granite City
Poverty rate	24.5%	16.4%
Average household size	2.30	2.33
Mean commute (minutes)	24	23
Median year structure built	1953	1958