East St. Louis vs Swansea

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

East St. Louis and Swansea 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 14,603 in Swansea). Swansea has the higher median household income ($84,367 vs $30,992 in East St. Louis). Swansea has the higher median home value ($211,700 vs $52,700 in East St. Louis).

Population, income & housing

	East St. Louis	Swansea
Population	18,278	14,603
Median age	45.1 yrs	38.4 yrs
Median household income	$30,992	$84,367
Median home value	$52,700	$211,700
Median gross rent	$597	$1,178
Housing units	10,973	5,929
Homeownership rate	54.3%	75.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.7%	43.1%
Unemployment rate	15.3%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	East St. Louis	Swansea
Population	26,543 → 18,278 (-31.1%)	13,851 → 14,603 (+5.4%)
Median household income	$24,343 → $30,992 (+27.3%)	$77,517 → $84,367 (+8.8%)
Median home value	$54,500 → $52,700 (-3.3%)	$167,000 → $211,700 (+26.8%)
Median gross rent	$484 → $597 (+23.3%)	$1,062 → $1,178 (+10.9%)

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

Swansea

Population

13,85114,603

Median household income

$77,517$84,367

Median home value

$167,000$211,700

Median gross rent

$1,062$1,178

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	East St. Louis	Swansea
Under 5	6.2%	5.9%
5 to 17	12.0%	17.2%
18 to 24	9.5%	9.5%
25 to 34	13.3%	13.9%
35 to 44	8.8%	11.7%
45 to 54	10.9%	10.3%
55 to 64	14.5%	13.6%
65 to 74	14.8%	10.5%
75 and over	9.9%	7.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	East St. Louis	Swansea
White (non-Hispanic)	1.6%	71.8%
Black or African American	94.0%	17.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	2.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.7%	7.1%
Hispanic or Latino	1.4%	1.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	East St. Louis	Swansea
No high school diploma	17.3%	3.4%
High school graduate	36.6%	21.3%
Some college or associate's	31.4%	32.2%
Bachelor's degree	9.0%	23.7%
Graduate or professional degree	5.6%	19.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	East St. Louis	Swansea
Drove alone	70.7%	78.7%
Carpooled	16.2%	6.9%
Public transit	2.5%	0.8%
Walked	1.9%	0.2%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.6%	12.8%
Other means	1.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	East St. Louis	Swansea
1-unit, detached	64.6%	70.9%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	3.7%
2 to 4 units	13.7%	4.6%
5 to 19 units	11.3%	6.1%
20 or more units	8.0%	5.9%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	8.8%

Poverty & households

	East St. Louis	Swansea
Poverty rate	32.8%	8.3%
Average household size	2.44	2.58
Mean commute (minutes)	23	26
Median year structure built	1957	1993