Madison County vs McHenry County

A side-by-side comparison of Madison County and McHenry County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

McHenry County has the higher population (311,366 vs 264,631 in Madison County). McHenry County has the higher median household income ($102,836 vs $74,800 in Madison County). McHenry County has the higher median home value ($286,900 vs $167,900 in Madison County).

Population, income & housing

	Madison County	McHenry County
Population	264,631	311,366
Median age	40.2 yrs	40.4 yrs
Median household income	$74,800	$102,836
Median home value	$167,900	$286,900
Median gross rent	$969	$1,358
Housing units	118,942	120,605
Homeownership rate	73.6%	82.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.8%	35.2%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Madison County	McHenry County
Population	264,776 → 264,631 (-0.1%)	307,714 → 311,366 (+1.2%)
Median household income	$60,738 → $74,800 (+23.2%)	$86,799 → $102,836 (+18.5%)
Median home value	$135,600 → $167,900 (+23.8%)	$224,500 → $286,900 (+27.8%)
Median gross rent	$824 → $969 (+17.6%)	$1,197 → $1,358 (+13.5%)

Madison County

Population

264,776264,631

Median household income

$60,738$74,800

Median home value

$135,600$167,900

Median gross rent

$824$969

McHenry County

Population

307,714311,366

Median household income

$86,799$102,836

Median home value

$224,500$286,900

Median gross rent

$1,197$1,358

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Madison County	McHenry County
Under 5	5.3%	5.3%
5 to 17	16.2%	17.7%
18 to 24	8.8%	8.1%
25 to 34	12.9%	11.5%
35 to 44	12.7%	13.1%
45 to 54	12.2%	13.7%
55 to 64	13.9%	14.6%
65 to 74	10.6%	9.9%
75 and over	7.4%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Madison County	McHenry County
White (non-Hispanic)	82.4%	76.9%
Black or African American	8.5%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	2.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.7%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	4.2%	15.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Madison County	McHenry County
No high school diploma	6.3%	6.3%
High school graduate	28.3%	26.9%
Some college or associate's	34.6%	31.7%
Bachelor's degree	19.6%	23.3%
Graduate or professional degree	11.2%	11.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Madison County	McHenry County
Drove alone	80.3%	74.9%
Carpooled	6.4%	7.1%
Public transit	0.7%	1.4%
Walked	0.9%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	11.0%	14.7%
Other means	0.7%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Madison County	McHenry County
1-unit, detached	78.9%	77.4%
1-unit, attached	2.7%	10.6%
2 to 4 units	8.3%	3.7%
5 to 19 units	4.5%	5.5%
20 or more units	3.2%	2.2%
Mobile home & other	2.4%	0.7%

Poverty & households

	Madison County	McHenry County
Poverty rate	11.3%	6.1%
Average household size	2.37	2.66
Mean commute (minutes)	25	31
Median year structure built	1970	1989