Perry County vs Shelby County

A side-by-side comparison of Perry County and Shelby County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Shelby County has the higher population (20,867 vs 20,810 in Perry County). Shelby County has the higher median household income ($68,457 vs $59,286 in Perry County). Shelby County has the higher median home value ($130,400 vs $105,200 in Perry County).

Population, income & housing

	Perry County	Shelby County
Population	20,810	20,867
Median age	42.2 yrs	45.5 yrs
Median household income	$59,286	$68,457
Median home value	$105,200	$130,400
Median gross rent	$714	$762
Housing units	9,166	10,054
Homeownership rate	78.9%	78.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	12.3%	17.6%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Perry County	Shelby County
Population	21,251 → 20,810 (-2.1%)	21,737 → 20,867 (-4.0%)
Median household income	$52,428 → $59,286 (+13.1%)	$52,953 → $68,457 (+29.3%)
Median home value	$86,500 → $105,200 (+21.6%)	$96,500 → $130,400 (+35.1%)
Median gross rent	$576 → $714 (+24.0%)	$653 → $762 (+16.7%)

Perry County

Population

21,25120,810

Median household income

$52,428$59,286

Median home value

$86,500$105,200

Median gross rent

$576$714

Shelby County

Population

21,73720,867

Median household income

$52,953$68,457

Median home value

$96,500$130,400

Median gross rent

$653$762

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Perry County	Shelby County
Under 5	4.9%	5.4%
5 to 17	14.6%	16.0%
18 to 24	8.0%	6.4%
25 to 34	13.3%	10.5%
35 to 44	13.7%	11.4%
45 to 54	12.4%	11.9%
55 to 64	13.2%	15.0%
65 to 74	11.4%	13.4%
75 and over	8.4%	10.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Perry County	Shelby County
White (non-Hispanic)	85.5%	96.3%
Black or African American	8.0%	0.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.4%
Asian	0.6%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.2%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	3.5%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Perry County	Shelby County
No high school diploma	14.7%	5.5%
High school graduate	33.8%	42.5%
Some college or associate's	39.3%	34.4%
Bachelor's degree	8.2%	13.2%
Graduate or professional degree	4.1%	4.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Perry County	Shelby County
Drove alone	87.8%	83.7%
Carpooled	5.1%	6.6%
Public transit	0.5%	0.2%
Walked	1.1%	2.1%
Bicycle	1.1%	1.0%
Worked from home	3.8%	5.8%
Other means	0.6%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Perry County	Shelby County
1-unit, detached	75.7%	84.7%
1-unit, attached	0.1%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	6.6%	2.3%
5 to 19 units	2.8%	3.2%
20 or more units	3.4%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	11.3%	7.4%

Poverty & households

	Perry County	Shelby County
Poverty rate	16.9%	10.0%
Average household size	2.30	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	24	21
Median year structure built	1973	1965