Highland vs Wood River

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

Highland 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 10,268 in Highland). Highland has the higher median household income ($77,886 vs $65,960 in Wood River). Highland has the higher median home value ($185,800 vs $103,200 in Wood River).

Population, income & housing

	Highland	Wood River
Population	10,268	10,315
Median age	42.1 yrs	37.9 yrs
Median household income	$77,886	$65,960
Median home value	$185,800	$103,200
Median gross rent	$776	$915
Housing units	5,025	4,975
Homeownership rate	71.5%	68.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.3%	15.5%
Unemployment rate	2.1%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Highland	Wood River
Population	10,012 → 10,268 (+2.6%)	10,169 → 10,315 (+1.4%)
Median household income	$59,922 → $77,886 (+30.0%)	$46,860 → $65,960 (+40.8%)
Median home value	$152,100 → $185,800 (+22.2%)	$81,600 → $103,200 (+26.5%)
Median gross rent	$725 → $776 (+7.0%)	$779 → $915 (+17.5%)

Highland

Population

10,01210,268

Median household income

$59,922$77,886

Median home value

$152,100$185,800

Median gross rent

$725$776

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)

	Highland	Wood River
Under 5	5.3%	6.2%
5 to 17	15.2%	15.2%
18 to 24	6.3%	10.3%
25 to 34	13.9%	15.3%
35 to 44	13.5%	12.8%
45 to 54	11.6%	10.4%
55 to 64	15.5%	15.4%
65 to 74	10.4%	7.9%
75 and over	8.3%	6.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Highland	Wood River
White (non-Hispanic)	89.5%	86.5%
Black or African American	0.2%	6.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	3.4%	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	4.2%	3.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Highland	Wood River
No high school diploma	3.5%	6.1%
High school graduate	28.6%	42.0%
Some college or associate's	36.6%	36.3%
Bachelor's degree	20.3%	9.4%
Graduate or professional degree	11.0%	6.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Highland	Wood River
Drove alone	81.9%	83.6%
Carpooled	5.2%	7.6%
Public transit	0.9%	0.6%
Walked	0.8%	0.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	1.5%
Worked from home	10.1%	5.7%
Other means	0.1%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Highland	Wood River
1-unit, detached	67.8%	82.4%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	14.1%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	8.0%	8.8%
20 or more units	4.6%	2.3%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Highland	Wood River
Poverty rate	6.0%	13.1%
Average household size	2.11	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	26	26
Median year structure built	1976	1954