New Salem vs Pearl

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

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

New Salem has the higher population (131 vs 101 in Pearl). New Salem has the higher median home value ($118,800 vs $54,200 in Pearl). Since 2019, Pearl's population has grown faster (-42.3% vs -51.7%).

Population, income & housing

	New Salem	Pearl
Population	131	101
Median age	23.5 yrs	56.7 yrs
Median household income	—	$54,167
Median home value	$118,800	$54,200
Median gross rent	$667	—
Housing units	58	69
Homeownership rate	60.0%	97.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.5%	1.3%
Unemployment rate	5.8%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	New Salem	Pearl
Population	271 → 131 (-51.7%)	175 → 101 (-42.3%)
Median household income	$47,778 → $57,292 (+19.9%)	$43,824 → $54,167 (+23.6%)
Median home value	$83,200 → $118,800 (+42.8%)	$77,000 → $54,200 (-29.6%)
Median gross rent	$671 → $667 (-0.6%)	—

New Salem

Population

271131

Median household income

$47,778$57,292

Median home value

$83,200$118,800

Median gross rent

$671$667

Pearl

Population

175101

Median household income

$43,824$54,167

Median home value

$77,000$54,200

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	New Salem	Pearl
Under 5	13.7%	7.9%
5 to 17	33.6%	9.9%
18 to 24	3.1%	6.9%
25 to 34	17.6%	3.0%
35 to 44	19.8%	5.0%
45 to 54	0.8%	9.9%
55 to 64	3.1%	12.9%
65 to 74	1.5%	37.6%
75 and over	6.9%	6.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	New Salem	Pearl
White (non-Hispanic)	94.7%	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	5.3%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	New Salem	Pearl
No high school diploma	7.7%	26.3%
High school graduate	41.5%	57.9%
Some college or associate's	29.2%	14.5%
Bachelor's degree	21.5%	1.3%
Graduate or professional degree	0.0%	0.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	New Salem	Pearl
Drove alone	67.3%	63.3%
Carpooled	2.0%	3.3%
Public transit	10.2%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	18.4%	33.3%
Other means	2.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	New Salem	Pearl
1-unit, detached	94.8%	88.4%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	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	5.2%	11.6%

Poverty & households

	New Salem	Pearl
Poverty rate	18.3%	12.9%
Average household size	2.91	2.97
Mean commute (minutes)	22	31
Median year structure built	1940	1946