Saline County vs Shelby County

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

Saline 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.

Saline County has the higher population (23,387 vs 20,867 in Shelby County). Shelby County has the higher median household income ($68,457 vs $54,945 in Saline County). Shelby County has the higher median home value ($130,400 vs $92,900 in Saline County).

Population, income & housing

	Saline County	Shelby County
Population	23,387	20,867
Median age	43.2 yrs	45.5 yrs
Median household income	$54,945	$68,457
Median home value	$92,900	$130,400
Median gross rent	$711	$762
Housing units	11,578	10,054
Homeownership rate	74.9%	78.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.2%	17.6%
Unemployment rate	5.9%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Saline County	Shelby County
Population	23,994 → 23,387 (-2.5%)	21,737 → 20,867 (-4.0%)
Median household income	$44,090 → $54,945 (+24.6%)	$52,953 → $68,457 (+29.3%)
Median home value	$73,800 → $92,900 (+25.9%)	$96,500 → $130,400 (+35.1%)
Median gross rent	$622 → $711 (+14.3%)	$653 → $762 (+16.7%)

Saline County

Population

23,99423,387

Median household income

$44,090$54,945

Median home value

$73,800$92,900

Median gross rent

$622$711

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)

	Saline County	Shelby County
Under 5	6.0%	5.4%
5 to 17	14.9%	16.0%
18 to 24	6.3%	6.4%
25 to 34	12.4%	10.5%
35 to 44	11.5%	11.4%
45 to 54	12.3%	11.9%
55 to 64	15.7%	15.0%
65 to 74	11.9%	13.4%
75 and over	9.0%	10.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Saline County	Shelby County
White (non-Hispanic)	91.7%	96.3%
Black or African American	2.8%	0.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.4%
Asian	0.7%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.5%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	2.1%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Saline County	Shelby County
No high school diploma	11.2%	5.5%
High school graduate	30.6%	42.5%
Some college or associate's	37.9%	34.4%
Bachelor's degree	14.5%	13.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.8%	4.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Saline County	Shelby County
Drove alone	84.0%	83.7%
Carpooled	8.1%	6.6%
Public transit	0.7%	0.2%
Walked	2.1%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	1.0%
Worked from home	4.6%	5.8%
Other means	0.5%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Saline County	Shelby County
1-unit, detached	76.4%	84.7%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	5.2%	2.3%
5 to 19 units	4.3%	3.2%
20 or more units	3.3%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	10.4%	7.4%

Poverty & households

	Saline County	Shelby County
Poverty rate	17.1%	10.0%
Average household size	2.28	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	23	21
Median year structure built	1970	1965