Rock Falls vs Sterling

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

Rock Falls 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 8,683 in Rock Falls). Sterling has the higher median household income ($52,647 vs $48,733 in Rock Falls). Sterling has the higher median home value ($107,800 vs $82,400 in Rock Falls).

Population, income & housing

	Rock Falls	Sterling
Population	8,683	14,670
Median age	39.9 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$48,733	$52,647
Median home value	$82,400	$107,800
Median gross rent	$745	$780
Housing units	4,471	7,385
Homeownership rate	65.6%	61.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	15.0%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Rock Falls	Sterling
Population	8,952 → 8,683 (-3.0%)	14,782 → 14,670 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$49,191 → $48,733 (-0.9%)	$43,685 → $52,647 (+20.5%)
Median home value	$78,000 → $82,400 (+5.6%)	$88,100 → $107,800 (+22.4%)
Median gross rent	$695 → $745 (+7.2%)	$675 → $780 (+15.6%)

Rock Falls

Population

8,9528,683

Median household income

$49,191$48,733

Median home value

$78,000$82,400

Median gross rent

$695$745

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)

	Rock Falls	Sterling
Under 5	6.8%	4.7%
5 to 17	15.9%	15.0%
18 to 24	8.3%	10.5%
25 to 34	12.2%	11.0%
35 to 44	11.5%	12.8%
45 to 54	13.1%	12.5%
55 to 64	12.7%	11.3%
65 to 74	11.3%	12.7%
75 and over	8.2%	9.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Rock Falls	Sterling
White (non-Hispanic)	74.9%	67.3%
Black or African American	0.4%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.4%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	22.0%	25.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Rock Falls	Sterling
No high school diploma	12.8%	9.5%
High school graduate	34.5%	38.5%
Some college or associate's	37.7%	33.5%
Bachelor's degree	10.8%	9.9%
Graduate or professional degree	4.2%	8.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Rock Falls	Sterling
Drove alone	84.4%	74.9%
Carpooled	9.3%	12.0%
Public transit	0.6%	0.4%
Walked	0.5%	6.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	2.3%
Worked from home	5.2%	3.3%
Other means	0.0%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Rock Falls	Sterling
1-unit, detached	75.3%	69.1%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	11.4%	15.3%
5 to 19 units	5.9%	6.4%
20 or more units	4.5%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	1.4%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Rock Falls	Sterling
Poverty rate	22.7%	16.4%
Average household size	2.19	2.15
Mean commute (minutes)	16	18
Median year structure built	1959	1957