Forest City vs Topeka

A side-by-side comparison of Forest City and Topeka: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Forest City has the higher population (225 vs 28 in Topeka). Topeka has the higher median household income ($76,563 vs $63,125 in Forest City). Forest City has the higher median home value ($70,000 vs $50,000 in Topeka).

Population, income & housing

	Forest City	Topeka
Population	225	28
Median age	38.6 yrs	50.0 yrs
Median household income	$63,125	$76,563
Median home value	$70,000	$50,000
Median gross rent	$920	—
Housing units	102	19
Homeownership rate	71.0%	46.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.4%	0.0%
Unemployment rate	18.3%	31.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest City	Topeka
Population	283 → 225 (-20.5%)	94 → 28 (-70.2%)
Median household income	$44,688 → $63,125 (+41.3%)	$43,125 → $76,563 (+77.5%)
Median home value	$61,700 → $70,000 (+13.5%)	$84,000 → $50,000 (-40.5%)
Median gross rent	$713 → $920 (+29.0%)	—

Forest City

Population

283225

Median household income

$44,688$63,125

Median home value

$61,700$70,000

Median gross rent

$713$920

Topeka

Population

9428

Median household income

$43,125$76,563

Median home value

$84,000$50,000

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest City	Topeka
Under 5	6.7%	0.0%
5 to 17	17.8%	21.4%
18 to 24	5.8%	0.0%
25 to 34	12.4%	0.0%
35 to 44	10.7%	14.3%
45 to 54	10.7%	17.9%
55 to 64	11.6%	14.3%
65 to 74	18.2%	17.9%
75 and over	6.2%	14.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest City	Topeka
White (non-Hispanic)	89.3%	100.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	8.4%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	2.2%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest City	Topeka
No high school diploma	8.3%	45.5%
High school graduate	49.7%	36.4%
Some college or associate's	28.7%	18.2%
Bachelor's degree	12.1%	0.0%
Graduate or professional degree	1.3%	0.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest City	Topeka
Drove alone	78.4%	100.0%
Carpooled	9.5%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.5%	0.0%
Other means	2.7%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest City	Topeka
1-unit, detached	87.3%	89.5%
1-unit, attached	2.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	10.8%	10.5%

Poverty & households

	Forest City	Topeka
Poverty rate	28.4%	0.0%
Average household size	2.42	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	31	—
Median year structure built	1962	1955