Cary vs Harvard

A side-by-side comparison of Cary and Harvard: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cary has the higher population (17,875 vs 9,875 in Harvard). Cary has the higher median household income ($109,790 vs $71,418 in Harvard). Cary has the higher median home value ($287,000 vs $174,000 in Harvard).

Population, income & housing

	Cary	Harvard
Population	17,875	9,875
Median age	38.6 yrs	30.5 yrs
Median household income	$109,790	$71,418
Median home value	$287,000	$174,000
Median gross rent	$1,456	$1,184
Housing units	6,506	3,443
Homeownership rate	85.7%	61.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.5%	19.2%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	6.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cary	Harvard
Population	17,936 → 17,875 (-0.3%)	9,281 → 9,875 (+6.4%)
Median household income	$100,339 → $109,790 (+9.4%)	$53,362 → $71,418 (+33.8%)
Median home value	$232,500 → $287,000 (+23.4%)	$124,800 → $174,000 (+39.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,196 → $1,456 (+21.7%)	$966 → $1,184 (+22.6%)

Cary

Population

17,93617,875

Median household income

$100,339$109,790

Median home value

$232,500$287,000

Median gross rent

$1,196$1,456

Harvard

Population

9,2819,875

Median household income

$53,362$71,418

Median home value

$124,800$174,000

Median gross rent

$966$1,184

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cary	Harvard
Under 5	6.6%	7.3%
5 to 17	17.6%	24.8%
18 to 24	8.7%	9.5%
25 to 34	11.0%	14.7%
35 to 44	15.5%	13.2%
45 to 54	12.1%	12.6%
55 to 64	15.7%	8.0%
65 to 74	8.9%	7.7%
75 and over	4.0%	2.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cary	Harvard
White (non-Hispanic)	80.2%	42.6%
Black or African American	0.6%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.1%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.7%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	13.7%	53.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cary	Harvard
No high school diploma	3.2%	18.9%
High school graduate	20.5%	36.7%
Some college or associate's	30.9%	25.1%
Bachelor's degree	28.7%	16.4%
Graduate or professional degree	16.8%	2.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cary	Harvard
Drove alone	75.8%	76.1%
Carpooled	3.9%	13.2%
Public transit	1.9%	0.3%
Walked	0.4%	5.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	17.7%	5.1%
Other means	0.3%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cary	Harvard
1-unit, detached	77.9%	63.6%
1-unit, attached	16.1%	12.4%
2 to 4 units	0.9%	13.8%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	5.8%
20 or more units	2.1%	3.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	1.4%

Poverty & households

	Cary	Harvard
Poverty rate	4.6%	11.5%
Average household size	2.81	3.04
Mean commute (minutes)	29	27
Median year structure built	1985	1980