Forreston vs Leaf River

A side-by-side comparison of Forreston and Leaf River: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Forreston has the higher population (1,148 vs 475 in Leaf River). Leaf River has the higher median household income ($75,903 vs $68,042 in Forreston). Forreston has the higher median home value ($116,500 vs $93,600 in Leaf River).

Population, income & housing

	Forreston	Leaf River
Population	1,148	475
Median age	47.5 yrs	43.8 yrs
Median household income	$68,042	$75,903
Median home value	$116,500	$93,600
Median gross rent	$783	$795
Housing units	569	228
Homeownership rate	80.9%	82.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.7%	12.5%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	1.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forreston	Leaf River
Population	1,549 → 1,148 (-25.9%)	422 → 475 (+12.6%)
Median household income	$54,559 → $68,042 (+24.7%)	$46,500 → $75,903 (+63.2%)
Median home value	$96,000 → $116,500 (+21.4%)	$81,800 → $93,600 (+14.4%)
Median gross rent	$683 → $783 (+14.6%)	$729 → $795 (+9.1%)

Forreston

Population

1,5491,148

Median household income

$54,559$68,042

Median home value

$96,000$116,500

Median gross rent

$683$783

Leaf River

Population

422475

Median household income

$46,500$75,903

Median home value

$81,800$93,600

Median gross rent

$729$795

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forreston	Leaf River
Under 5	2.5%	7.6%
5 to 17	19.3%	15.8%
18 to 24	4.3%	4.4%
25 to 34	11.7%	13.9%
35 to 44	9.5%	9.5%
45 to 54	10.3%	19.4%
55 to 64	18.5%	14.7%
65 to 74	12.9%	8.8%
75 and over	11.1%	5.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forreston	Leaf River
White (non-Hispanic)	88.9%	96.2%
Black or African American	2.7%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.5%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	5.9%	1.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forreston	Leaf River
No high school diploma	8.7%	5.8%
High school graduate	45.8%	47.5%
Some college or associate's	31.8%	34.1%
Bachelor's degree	9.7%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	4.0%	0.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forreston	Leaf River
Drove alone	72.5%	86.7%
Carpooled	17.3%	4.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	4.9%	4.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.1%	3.2%
Other means	1.2%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forreston	Leaf River
1-unit, detached	87.2%	89.0%
1-unit, attached	0.5%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	4.0%	8.8%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	1.8%
20 or more units	4.6%	0.4%
Mobile home & other	3.7%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Forreston	Leaf River
Poverty rate	4.4%	14.2%
Average household size	2.20	2.25
Mean commute (minutes)	26	30
Median year structure built	1959	1951