Central City vs Salem

A side-by-side comparison of Central City and Salem: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Salem has the higher population (7,341 vs 1,123 in Central City). Salem has the higher median household income ($57,083 vs $47,750 in Central City). Salem has the higher median home value ($99,800 vs $43,900 in Central City).

Population, income & housing

	Central City	Salem
Population	1,123	7,341
Median age	38.5 yrs	38.2 yrs
Median household income	$47,750	$57,083
Median home value	$43,900	$99,800
Median gross rent	$888	$752
Housing units	592	3,340
Homeownership rate	72.4%	62.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	7.7%	14.8%
Unemployment rate	4.8%	2.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Central City	Salem
Population	1,256 → 1,123 (-10.6%)	7,027 → 7,341 (+4.5%)
Median household income	$41,875 → $47,750 (+14.0%)	$40,449 → $57,083 (+41.1%)
Median home value	$51,600 → $43,900 (-14.9%)	$78,500 → $99,800 (+27.1%)
Median gross rent	$756 → $888 (+17.5%)	$620 → $752 (+21.3%)

Central City

Population

1,2561,123

Median household income

$41,875$47,750

Median home value

$51,600$43,900

Median gross rent

$756$888

Salem

Population

7,0277,341

Median household income

$40,449$57,083

Median home value

$78,500$99,800

Median gross rent

$620$752

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Central City	Salem
Under 5	7.0%	6.5%
5 to 17	19.3%	18.4%
18 to 24	6.5%	7.3%
25 to 34	14.2%	14.2%
35 to 44	16.6%	12.1%
45 to 54	11.8%	13.2%
55 to 64	10.8%	10.0%
65 to 74	6.9%	10.1%
75 and over	6.8%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Central City	Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	93.9%	90.0%
Black or African American	1.0%	4.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	1.9%
Two or more races	0.9%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	3.4%	0.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Central City	Salem
No high school diploma	11.7%	7.1%
High school graduate	32.8%	38.4%
Some college or associate's	47.9%	39.7%
Bachelor's degree	5.2%	12.1%
Graduate or professional degree	2.5%	2.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Central City	Salem
Drove alone	81.9%	82.3%
Carpooled	15.6%	9.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.3%
Walked	1.3%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.1%
Worked from home	0.4%	4.8%
Other means	0.8%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Central City	Salem
1-unit, detached	63.0%	70.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.2%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	13.2%
5 to 19 units	1.5%	4.3%
20 or more units	0.0%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	34.3%	9.2%

Poverty & households

	Central City	Salem
Poverty rate	27.7%	20.1%
Average household size	2.35	2.31
Mean commute (minutes)	14	12
Median year structure built	1964	1970