East St. Louis vs Fairview Heights

A side-by-side comparison of East St. Louis and Fairview Heights: population, income, housing, and more.

East St. Louis and Fairview Heights are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

East St. Louis has the higher population (18,278 vs 16,255 in Fairview Heights). Fairview Heights has the higher median household income ($77,960 vs $30,992 in East St. Louis). Fairview Heights has the higher median home value ($166,800 vs $52,700 in East St. Louis).

Population, income & housing

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
Population	18,278	16,255
Median age	45.1 yrs	41.6 yrs
Median household income	$30,992	$77,960
Median home value	$52,700	$166,800
Median gross rent	$597	$1,177
Housing units	10,973	8,076
Homeownership rate	54.3%	66.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.7%	32.1%
Unemployment rate	15.3%	6.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
Population	26,543 → 18,278 (-31.1%)	16,125 → 16,255 (+0.8%)
Median household income	$24,343 → $30,992 (+27.3%)	$64,495 → $77,960 (+20.9%)
Median home value	$54,500 → $52,700 (-3.3%)	$135,400 → $166,800 (+23.2%)
Median gross rent	$484 → $597 (+23.3%)	$997 → $1,177 (+18.1%)

East St. Louis

Population

26,54318,278

Median household income

$24,343$30,992

Median home value

$54,500$52,700

Median gross rent

$484$597

Fairview Heights

Population

16,12516,255

Median household income

$64,495$77,960

Median home value

$135,400$166,800

Median gross rent

$997$1,177

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
Under 5	6.2%	5.3%
5 to 17	12.0%	16.5%
18 to 24	9.5%	7.1%
25 to 34	13.3%	12.1%
35 to 44	8.8%	12.3%
45 to 54	10.9%	13.4%
55 to 64	14.5%	15.0%
65 to 74	14.8%	11.9%
75 and over	9.9%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
White (non-Hispanic)	1.6%	51.3%
Black or African American	94.0%	32.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	2.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.3%	1.0%
Two or more races	1.7%	10.0%
Hispanic or Latino	1.4%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
No high school diploma	17.3%	7.1%
High school graduate	36.6%	23.8%
Some college or associate's	31.4%	37.0%
Bachelor's degree	9.0%	17.7%
Graduate or professional degree	5.6%	14.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
Drove alone	70.7%	80.0%
Carpooled	16.2%	9.0%
Public transit	2.5%	1.6%
Walked	1.9%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.6%	7.4%
Other means	1.8%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
1-unit, detached	64.6%	72.8%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	2.6%
2 to 4 units	13.7%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	11.3%	12.2%
20 or more units	8.0%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	2.7%

Poverty & households

	East St. Louis	Fairview Heights
Poverty rate	32.8%	9.1%
Average household size	2.44	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	23	23
Median year structure built	1957	1974