Prophetstown vs Sterling

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

Prophetstown 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 1,828 in Prophetstown). Prophetstown has the higher median household income ($66,797 vs $52,647 in Sterling). Prophetstown has the higher median home value ($116,300 vs $107,800 in Sterling).

Population, income & housing

	Prophetstown	Sterling
Population	1,828	14,670
Median age	43.8 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$66,797	$52,647
Median home value	$116,300	$107,800
Median gross rent	$704	$780
Housing units	804	7,385
Homeownership rate	75.5%	61.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.1%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	7.1%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Prophetstown	Sterling
Population	2,062 → 1,828 (-11.3%)	14,782 → 14,670 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$49,152 → $66,797 (+35.9%)	$43,685 → $52,647 (+20.5%)
Median home value	$96,300 → $116,300 (+20.8%)	$88,100 → $107,800 (+22.4%)
Median gross rent	$707 → $704 (-0.4%)	$675 → $780 (+15.6%)

Prophetstown

Population

2,0621,828

Median household income

$49,152$66,797

Median home value

$96,300$116,300

Median gross rent

$707$704

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)

	Prophetstown	Sterling
Under 5	6.5%	4.7%
5 to 17	17.9%	15.0%
18 to 24	7.2%	10.5%
25 to 34	10.4%	11.0%
35 to 44	8.5%	12.8%
45 to 54	11.8%	12.5%
55 to 64	11.7%	11.3%
65 to 74	11.9%	12.7%
75 and over	14.2%	9.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Prophetstown	Sterling
White (non-Hispanic)	92.0%	67.3%
Black or African American	2.1%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.2%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.4%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	2.0%	25.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Prophetstown	Sterling
No high school diploma	8.6%	9.5%
High school graduate	42.5%	38.5%
Some college or associate's	34.8%	33.5%
Bachelor's degree	9.8%	9.9%
Graduate or professional degree	4.3%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Prophetstown	Sterling
Drove alone	87.0%	74.9%
Carpooled	7.7%	12.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.4%
Walked	3.4%	6.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	2.3%
Worked from home	1.3%	3.3%
Other means	0.6%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Prophetstown	Sterling
1-unit, detached	81.1%	69.1%
1-unit, attached	2.0%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	9.7%	15.3%
5 to 19 units	6.8%	6.4%
20 or more units	0.4%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Prophetstown	Sterling
Poverty rate	10.8%	16.4%
Average household size	2.48	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	21	18
Median year structure built	1957	1957