Centralia vs Salem

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

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

Centralia has the higher population (12,009 vs 7,341 in Salem). Salem has the higher median household income ($57,083 vs $47,308 in Centralia). Salem has the higher median home value ($99,800 vs $81,600 in Centralia).

Population, income & housing

	Centralia	Salem
Population	12,009	7,341
Median age	40.0 yrs	38.2 yrs
Median household income	$47,308	$57,083
Median home value	$81,600	$99,800
Median gross rent	$775	$752
Housing units	5,949	3,340
Homeownership rate	64.2%	62.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.8%	14.8%
Unemployment rate	10.6%	2.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Centralia	Salem
Population	12,356 → 12,009 (-2.8%)	7,027 → 7,341 (+4.5%)
Median household income	$37,675 → $47,308 (+25.6%)	$40,449 → $57,083 (+41.1%)
Median home value	$69,400 → $81,600 (+17.6%)	$78,500 → $99,800 (+27.1%)
Median gross rent	$637 → $775 (+21.7%)	$620 → $752 (+21.3%)

Centralia

Population

12,35612,009

Median household income

$37,675$47,308

Median home value

$69,400$81,600

Median gross rent

$637$775

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)

	Centralia	Salem
Under 5	6.9%	6.5%
5 to 17	16.5%	18.4%
18 to 24	8.8%	7.3%
25 to 34	11.8%	14.2%
35 to 44	11.8%	12.1%
45 to 54	8.9%	13.2%
55 to 64	13.2%	10.0%
65 to 74	11.4%	10.1%
75 and over	10.8%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Centralia	Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	80.5%	90.0%
Black or African American	9.6%	4.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.6%	0.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	1.9%
Two or more races	3.7%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	3.9%	0.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Centralia	Salem
No high school diploma	11.0%	7.1%
High school graduate	34.4%	38.4%
Some college or associate's	36.9%	39.7%
Bachelor's degree	11.0%	12.1%
Graduate or professional degree	6.8%	2.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Centralia	Salem
Drove alone	79.2%	82.3%
Carpooled	10.5%	9.6%
Public transit	0.2%	0.3%
Walked	3.0%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.1%
Worked from home	6.7%	4.8%
Other means	0.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Centralia	Salem
1-unit, detached	75.9%	70.0%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.2%
2 to 4 units	6.4%	13.2%
5 to 19 units	7.3%	4.3%
20 or more units	5.9%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	3.6%	9.2%

Poverty & households

	Centralia	Salem
Poverty rate	22.6%	20.1%
Average household size	2.20	2.31
Mean commute (minutes)	20	12
Median year structure built	1964	1970