Knox County vs Stephenson County

A side-by-side comparison of Knox County and Stephenson County: population, income, housing, and more.

Knox County and Stephenson County are counties in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Knox County has the higher population (49,294 vs 44,042 in Stephenson County). Stephenson County has the higher median household income ($61,943 vs $53,291 in Knox County). Stephenson County has the higher median home value ($127,500 vs $104,900 in Knox County).

Population, income & housing

	Knox County	Stephenson County
Population	49,294	44,042
Median age	42.4 yrs	45.2 yrs
Median household income	$53,291	$61,943
Median home value	$104,900	$127,500
Median gross rent	$725	$764
Housing units	23,788	21,375
Homeownership rate	69.8%	71.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.3%	21.7%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Knox County	Stephenson County
Population	50,508 → 49,294 (-2.4%)	45,093 → 44,042 (-2.3%)
Median household income	$44,129 → $53,291 (+20.8%)	$48,805 → $61,943 (+26.9%)
Median home value	$83,000 → $104,900 (+26.4%)	$97,800 → $127,500 (+30.4%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $725 (+14.4%)	$651 → $764 (+17.4%)

Knox County

Population

50,50849,294

Median household income

$44,129$53,291

Median home value

$83,000$104,900

Median gross rent

$634$725

Stephenson County

Population

45,09344,042

Median household income

$48,805$61,943

Median home value

$97,800$127,500

Median gross rent

$651$764

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Knox County	Stephenson County
Under 5	5.5%	5.3%
5 to 17	14.6%	16.1%
18 to 24	9.8%	7.4%
25 to 34	11.1%	10.2%
35 to 44	11.7%	10.9%
45 to 54	11.6%	11.4%
55 to 64	13.6%	14.8%
65 to 74	12.6%	13.8%
75 and over	9.6%	10.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Knox County	Stephenson County
White (non-Hispanic)	80.8%	80.0%
Black or African American	7.7%	8.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.8%	5.3%
Hispanic or Latino	6.3%	5.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Knox County	Stephenson County
No high school diploma	10.7%	8.5%
High school graduate	34.9%	32.0%
Some college or associate's	34.1%	37.8%
Bachelor's degree	13.1%	14.1%
Graduate or professional degree	7.2%	7.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Knox County	Stephenson County
Drove alone	80.5%	77.2%
Carpooled	8.9%	8.1%
Public transit	0.5%	0.7%
Walked	3.6%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.1%
Worked from home	5.7%	10.2%
Other means	0.6%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Knox County	Stephenson County
1-unit, detached	76.9%	75.8%
1-unit, attached	0.9%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	7.6%	7.5%
5 to 19 units	6.1%	5.5%
20 or more units	4.3%	4.3%
Mobile home & other	4.2%	3.2%

Poverty & households

	Knox County	Stephenson County
Poverty rate	15.9%	13.1%
Average household size	2.18	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	21	21
Median year structure built	1956	1959