Elwood vs Rockdale

A side-by-side comparison of Elwood and Rockdale: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Rockdale has the higher population (2,598 vs 2,141 in Elwood). Elwood has the higher median household income ($73,640 vs $56,799 in Rockdale). Elwood has the higher median home value ($224,900 vs $183,500 in Rockdale).

Population, income & housing

	Elwood	Rockdale
Population	2,141	2,598
Median age	41.8 yrs	29.6 yrs
Median household income	$73,640	$56,799
Median home value	$224,900	$183,500
Median gross rent	$986	$1,219
Housing units	966	952
Homeownership rate	78.3%	47.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.7%	12.1%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	8.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elwood	Rockdale
Population	2,367 → 2,141 (-9.5%)	1,979 → 2,598 (+31.3%)
Median household income	$79,054 → $73,640 (-6.8%)	$52,727 → $56,799 (+7.7%)
Median home value	$168,800 → $224,900 (+33.2%)	$132,600 → $183,500 (+38.4%)
Median gross rent	$891 → $986 (+10.7%)	$975 → $1,219 (+25.0%)

Elwood

Population

2,3672,141

Median household income

$79,054$73,640

Median home value

$168,800$224,900

Median gross rent

$891$986

Rockdale

Population

1,9792,598

Median household income

$52,727$56,799

Median home value

$132,600$183,500

Median gross rent

$975$1,219

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elwood	Rockdale
Under 5	5.7%	8.8%
5 to 17	9.4%	15.1%
18 to 24	6.8%	16.0%
25 to 34	20.0%	14.5%
35 to 44	10.4%	9.6%
45 to 54	9.5%	14.0%
55 to 64	21.2%	13.5%
65 to 74	9.9%	5.2%
75 and over	7.1%	3.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elwood	Rockdale
White (non-Hispanic)	80.4%	40.9%
Black or African American	6.2%	5.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	1.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.2%	6.8%
Hispanic or Latino	12.9%	45.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elwood	Rockdale
No high school diploma	4.4%	18.7%
High school graduate	42.9%	42.8%
Some college or associate's	38.0%	26.4%
Bachelor's degree	9.2%	8.6%
Graduate or professional degree	5.5%	3.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elwood	Rockdale
Drove alone	81.0%	67.9%
Carpooled	8.9%	14.1%
Public transit	0.9%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	12.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.9%	4.6%
Other means	1.2%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elwood	Rockdale
1-unit, detached	62.6%	73.8%
1-unit, attached	17.7%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	10.5%	20.2%
5 to 19 units	1.4%	4.6%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	7.8%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Elwood	Rockdale
Poverty rate	6.2%	26.9%
Average household size	2.32	2.95
Mean commute (minutes)	30	24
Median year structure built	1991	1953