Lee County vs Monroe County

A side-by-side comparison of Lee County and Monroe County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Monroe County has the higher population (34,969 vs 34,058 in Lee County). Monroe County has the higher median household income ($101,635 vs $68,459 in Lee County). Monroe County has the higher median home value ($265,600 vs $155,100 in Lee County).

Population, income & housing

	Lee County	Monroe County
Population	34,058	34,969
Median age	43.0 yrs	42.5 yrs
Median household income	$68,459	$101,635
Median home value	$155,100	$265,600
Median gross rent	$853	$996
Housing units	14,993	14,665
Homeownership rate	73.3%	83.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.4%	38.2%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lee County	Monroe County
Population	34,389 → 34,058 (-1.0%)	34,168 → 34,969 (+2.3%)
Median household income	$58,194 → $68,459 (+17.6%)	$85,747 → $101,635 (+18.5%)
Median home value	$119,900 → $155,100 (+29.4%)	$211,300 → $265,600 (+25.7%)
Median gross rent	$694 → $853 (+22.9%)	$872 → $996 (+14.2%)

Lee County

Population

34,38934,058

Median household income

$58,194$68,459

Median home value

$119,900$155,100

Median gross rent

$694$853

Monroe County

Population

34,16834,969

Median household income

$85,747$101,635

Median home value

$211,300$265,600

Median gross rent

$872$996

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lee County	Monroe County
Under 5	4.9%	5.3%
5 to 17	15.0%	16.8%
18 to 24	6.6%	6.7%
25 to 34	13.3%	10.8%
35 to 44	12.6%	13.6%
45 to 54	12.1%	12.6%
55 to 64	14.7%	15.4%
65 to 74	11.9%	11.4%
75 and over	8.8%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lee County	Monroe County
White (non-Hispanic)	84.3%	95.3%
Black or African American	5.4%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.5%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.5%	1.5%
Hispanic or Latino	7.2%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lee County	Monroe County
No high school diploma	9.5%	4.2%
High school graduate	37.2%	24.2%
Some college or associate's	33.9%	33.3%
Bachelor's degree	12.3%	24.2%
Graduate or professional degree	7.0%	14.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lee County	Monroe County
Drove alone	83.6%	81.1%
Carpooled	7.9%	5.0%
Public transit	0.8%	0.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.3%	11.6%
Other means	1.0%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lee County	Monroe County
1-unit, detached	78.3%	82.7%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	3.8%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	4.2%
5 to 19 units	4.5%	5.7%
20 or more units	3.3%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	5.6%	1.7%

Poverty & households

	Lee County	Monroe County
Poverty rate	11.7%	4.6%
Average household size	2.33	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	24	28
Median year structure built	1962	1990