Erie vs Sterling

A side-by-side comparison of Erie and Sterling: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Sterling has the higher population (14,670 vs 1,658 in Erie). Erie has the higher median household income ($86,750 vs $52,647 in Sterling). Erie has the higher median home value ($147,300 vs $107,800 in Sterling).

Population, income & housing

	Erie	Sterling
Population	1,658	14,670
Median age	42.3 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$86,750	$52,647
Median home value	$147,300	$107,800
Median gross rent	$740	$780
Housing units	785	7,385
Homeownership rate	71.6%	61.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.4%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Erie	Sterling
Population	1,496 → 1,658 (+10.8%)	14,782 → 14,670 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$71,875 → $86,750 (+20.7%)	$43,685 → $52,647 (+20.5%)
Median home value	$130,000 → $147,300 (+13.3%)	$88,100 → $107,800 (+22.4%)
Median gross rent	$605 → $740 (+22.3%)	$675 → $780 (+15.6%)

Erie

Population

1,4961,658

Median household income

$71,875$86,750

Median home value

$130,000$147,300

Median gross rent

$605$740

Sterling

Population

14,78214,670

Median household income

$43,685$52,647

Median home value

$88,100$107,800

Median gross rent

$675$780

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Erie	Sterling
Under 5	5.6%	4.7%
5 to 17	24.8%	15.0%
18 to 24	5.2%	10.5%
25 to 34	7.5%	11.0%
35 to 44	14.6%	12.8%
45 to 54	10.7%	12.5%
55 to 64	13.9%	11.3%
65 to 74	8.3%	12.7%
75 and over	9.3%	9.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Erie	Sterling
White (non-Hispanic)	93.4%	67.3%
Black or African American	0.2%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.2%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.1%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	1.0%	25.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Erie	Sterling
No high school diploma	5.4%	9.5%
High school graduate	34.0%	38.5%
Some college or associate's	43.2%	33.5%
Bachelor's degree	9.8%	9.9%
Graduate or professional degree	7.7%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Erie	Sterling
Drove alone	92.0%	74.9%
Carpooled	4.6%	12.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.4%
Walked	0.4%	6.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	2.3%
Worked from home	2.5%	3.3%
Other means	0.5%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Erie	Sterling
1-unit, detached	86.5%	69.1%
1-unit, attached	0.6%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	10.8%	15.3%
5 to 19 units	1.5%	6.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Erie	Sterling
Poverty rate	6.0%	16.4%
Average household size	2.21	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	19	18
Median year structure built	1967	1957