Bethalto vs Wood River

A side-by-side comparison of Bethalto and Wood River: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Wood River has the higher population (10,315 vs 9,244 in Bethalto). Bethalto has the higher median household income ($66,469 vs $65,960 in Wood River). Bethalto has the higher median home value ($158,600 vs $103,200 in Wood River).

Population, income & housing

	Bethalto	Wood River
Population	9,244	10,315
Median age	41.5 yrs	37.9 yrs
Median household income	$66,469	$65,960
Median home value	$158,600	$103,200
Median gross rent	$879	$915
Housing units	4,584	4,975
Homeownership rate	79.2%	68.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.8%	15.5%
Unemployment rate	4.8%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethalto	Wood River
Population	9,284 → 9,244 (-0.4%)	10,169 → 10,315 (+1.4%)
Median household income	$63,200 → $66,469 (+5.2%)	$46,860 → $65,960 (+40.8%)
Median home value	$133,300 → $158,600 (+19.0%)	$81,600 → $103,200 (+26.5%)
Median gross rent	$803 → $879 (+9.5%)	$779 → $915 (+17.5%)

Bethalto

Population

9,2849,244

Median household income

$63,200$66,469

Median home value

$133,300$158,600

Median gross rent

$803$879

Wood River

Population

10,16910,315

Median household income

$46,860$65,960

Median home value

$81,600$103,200

Median gross rent

$779$915

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethalto	Wood River
Under 5	6.0%	6.2%
5 to 17	15.0%	15.2%
18 to 24	10.0%	10.3%
25 to 34	11.8%	15.3%
35 to 44	11.8%	12.8%
45 to 54	12.1%	10.4%
55 to 64	12.1%	15.4%
65 to 74	10.1%	7.9%
75 and over	11.1%	6.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethalto	Wood River
White (non-Hispanic)	94.7%	86.5%
Black or African American	1.2%	6.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.7%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	3.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethalto	Wood River
No high school diploma	5.7%	6.1%
High school graduate	33.2%	42.0%
Some college or associate's	31.3%	36.3%
Bachelor's degree	21.1%	9.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.7%	6.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethalto	Wood River
Drove alone	81.9%	83.6%
Carpooled	3.9%	7.6%
Public transit	1.8%	0.6%
Walked	2.0%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.5%
Worked from home	9.3%	5.7%
Other means	1.2%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethalto	Wood River
1-unit, detached	78.6%	82.4%
1-unit, attached	2.2%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	6.4%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	6.0%	8.8%
20 or more units	5.9%	2.3%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Bethalto	Wood River
Poverty rate	11.1%	13.1%
Average household size	2.25	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	25	26
Median year structure built	1976	1954