Joliet vs Plainfield

A side-by-side comparison of Joliet and Plainfield: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Joliet has the higher population (149,785 vs 45,705 in Plainfield). Plainfield has the higher median household income ($142,265 vs $88,026 in Joliet). Plainfield has the higher median home value ($398,000 vs $248,600 in Joliet).

Population, income & housing

	Joliet	Plainfield
Population	149,785	45,705
Median age	35.3 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$88,026	$142,265
Median home value	$248,600	$398,000
Median gross rent	$1,237	$1,889
Housing units	53,636	14,499
Homeownership rate	73.1%	88.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.0%	54.9%
Unemployment rate	5.8%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Joliet	Plainfield
Population	147,826 → 149,785 (+1.3%)	43,110 → 45,705 (+6.0%)
Median household income	$70,509 → $88,026 (+24.8%)	$130,614 → $142,265 (+8.9%)
Median home value	$181,100 → $248,600 (+37.3%)	$319,500 → $398,000 (+24.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,033 → $1,237 (+19.7%)	$1,795 → $1,889 (+5.2%)

Joliet

Population

147,826149,785

Median household income

$70,509$88,026

Median home value

$181,100$248,600

Median gross rent

$1,033$1,237

Plainfield

Population

43,11045,705

Median household income

$130,614$142,265

Median home value

$319,500$398,000

Median gross rent

$1,795$1,889

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Joliet	Plainfield
Under 5	6.1%	5.8%
5 to 17	19.4%	24.0%
18 to 24	10.7%	7.7%
25 to 34	13.4%	8.9%
35 to 44	14.4%	15.7%
45 to 54	14.8%	17.8%
55 to 64	10.3%	10.3%
65 to 74	7.0%	6.0%
75 and over	3.9%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Joliet	Plainfield
White (non-Hispanic)	43.5%	68.8%
Black or African American	16.7%	8.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	2.0%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.8%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	34.7%	10.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Joliet	Plainfield
No high school diploma	15.1%	4.6%
High school graduate	29.4%	15.4%
Some college or associate's	30.4%	25.2%
Bachelor's degree	16.0%	36.0%
Graduate or professional degree	9.0%	18.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Joliet	Plainfield
Drove alone	79.7%	70.6%
Carpooled	9.7%	4.5%
Public transit	1.6%	1.6%
Walked	0.8%	0.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	7.3%	21.3%
Other means	0.9%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Joliet	Plainfield
1-unit, detached	69.9%	79.1%
1-unit, attached	9.3%	12.6%
2 to 4 units	8.5%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	5.6%	3.0%
20 or more units	6.0%	3.2%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Joliet	Plainfield
Poverty rate	11.0%	4.1%
Average household size	2.90	3.20
Mean commute (minutes)	29	34
Median year structure built	1986	2003