Dakota vs Willow Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Dakota and Willow Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

Dakota and Willow Lake are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Willow Lake has the higher population (838 vs 625 in Dakota). Willow Lake has the higher median household income ($93,750 vs $57,063 in Dakota). Willow Lake has the higher median home value ($154,100 vs $115,700 in Dakota).

Population, income & housing

	Dakota	Willow Lake
Population	625	838
Median age	33.4 yrs	56.6 yrs
Median household income	$57,063	$93,750
Median home value	$115,700	$154,100
Median gross rent	$644	—
Housing units	279	391
Homeownership rate	63.7%	94.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.4%	24.2%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Dakota	Willow Lake
Population	562 → 625 (+11.2%)	752 → 838 (+11.4%)
Median household income	$57,679 → $57,063 (-1.1%)	$63,889 → $93,750 (+46.7%)
Median home value	$94,300 → $115,700 (+22.7%)	$125,900 → $154,100 (+22.4%)
Median gross rent	$675 → $644 (-4.6%)	—

Dakota

Population

562625

Median household income

$57,679$57,063

Median home value

$94,300$115,700

Median gross rent

$675$644

Willow Lake

Population

752838

Median household income

$63,889$93,750

Median home value

$125,900$154,100

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Dakota	Willow Lake
Under 5	6.4%	5.6%
5 to 17	25.8%	8.2%
18 to 24	12.6%	1.8%
25 to 34	6.9%	9.5%
35 to 44	10.1%	5.3%
45 to 54	16.2%	12.6%
55 to 64	5.6%	25.1%
65 to 74	9.6%	21.4%
75 and over	6.9%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Dakota	Willow Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	90.9%	84.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	13.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.9%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	2.9%	0.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Dakota	Willow Lake
No high school diploma	7.2%	8.1%
High school graduate	35.1%	20.1%
Some college or associate's	40.3%	47.7%
Bachelor's degree	7.2%	19.0%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Dakota	Willow Lake
Drove alone	68.1%	89.5%
Carpooled	15.0%	0.0%
Public transit	5.9%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.3%	10.5%
Other means	2.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Dakota	Willow Lake
1-unit, detached	84.6%	100.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	9.7%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	5.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Dakota	Willow Lake
Poverty rate	12.5%	6.7%
Average household size	2.91	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	24	20
Median year structure built	1945	1975