Cary vs Island Lake

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

Cary and Island Lake 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 8,023 in Island Lake). Cary has the higher median household income ($109,790 vs $98,125 in Island Lake). Cary has the higher median home value ($287,000 vs $241,900 in Island Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Cary	Island Lake
Population	17,875	8,023
Median age	38.6 yrs	39.5 yrs
Median household income	$109,790	$98,125
Median home value	$287,000	$241,900
Median gross rent	$1,456	$1,855
Housing units	6,506	3,045
Homeownership rate	85.7%	81.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.5%	27.6%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	6.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cary	Island Lake
Population	17,936 → 17,875 (-0.3%)	8,035 → 8,023 (-0.1%)
Median household income	$100,339 → $109,790 (+9.4%)	$83,292 → $98,125 (+17.8%)
Median home value	$232,500 → $287,000 (+23.4%)	$171,100 → $241,900 (+41.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,196 → $1,456 (+21.7%)	$1,388 → $1,855 (+33.6%)

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

Island Lake

Population

8,0358,023

Median household income

$83,292$98,125

Median home value

$171,100$241,900

Median gross rent

$1,388$1,855

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cary	Island Lake
Under 5	6.6%	7.2%
5 to 17	17.6%	14.9%
18 to 24	8.7%	8.6%
25 to 34	11.0%	12.4%
35 to 44	15.5%	13.4%
45 to 54	12.1%	14.7%
55 to 64	15.7%	15.4%
65 to 74	8.9%	10.1%
75 and over	4.0%	3.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cary	Island Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	80.2%	74.0%
Black or African American	0.6%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.1%	2.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.7%	1.9%
Hispanic or Latino	13.7%	21.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cary	Island Lake
No high school diploma	3.2%	9.2%
High school graduate	20.5%	29.4%
Some college or associate's	30.9%	33.8%
Bachelor's degree	28.7%	20.9%
Graduate or professional degree	16.8%	6.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cary	Island Lake
Drove alone	75.8%	76.3%
Carpooled	3.9%	9.9%
Public transit	1.9%	0.1%
Walked	0.4%	0.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	17.7%	11.9%
Other means	0.3%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cary	Island Lake
1-unit, detached	77.9%	74.1%
1-unit, attached	16.1%	21.5%
2 to 4 units	0.9%	0.3%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	2.6%
20 or more units	2.1%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Cary	Island Lake
Poverty rate	4.6%	6.5%
Average household size	2.81	2.75
Mean commute (minutes)	29	32
Median year structure built	1985	1989