Winnebago County, IL

County Profile

283,292 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Winnebago County, IL.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1147th of 1,255 counties measured30
Schools792nd of 973 counties measured25
Growth815th of 1,226 counties measured41
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 1,255 counties measured99
Climate1026th of 1,254 counties measured59
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 1,255 counties measured65
Access939th of 1,255 counties measured67
Economic stability694th of 1,255 counties measured58
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Winnebago County in the bottom 9%.

In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.2 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.5 times that income.

At a glance

Population
283,292
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,837
Top 48% nationally
Density
552/sq mi
513.0 sq mi of land
Median age
39.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Winnebago County
Illinois
Metro area
Rockford, IL
Nearest major airport
MSN
56 mi · Dane County Rgnl/Truax Fld
Median home value
$164,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 19% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 121,655 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,162$65,837Top 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$709$35,697Top 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.6%Top 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.4 minBottom 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.2%Top 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment121,655Top 22%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.3%Bottom 8%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 15%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force128,231Top 22%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation61.5%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 19%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/069.34.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,837 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Rockford, IL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand5,940$44,200
Registered Nurses4,620$80,930
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,630$31,640
Cashiers3,620$31,680
General and Operations Managers3,340$98,390
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators3,130$45,670

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 22% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
90
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
17.9%
Bottom 29% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
21.7%
Bottom 17% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Guilford High SchoolRockford SD 2052,21619.6
Jefferson High SchoolRockford SD 2052,17319.8
Auburn High SchoolRockford SD 2051,95719.4
Harlem High SchoolHarlem UD 1221,88414.2
Hononegah CHD High SchoolHononegah CHD 2071,81416.5
Rockford East High SchoolRockford SD 2051,71916.4
Harlem Middle SchoolHarlem UD 1221,33014.312%23%
Rockford Envrnmntl Science AcadRockford SD 2051,10819.43%6%
Eisenhower Middle SchoolRockford SD 20596317.212%17%
Bernard W Flinn Middle SchoolRockford SD 20580716.58%12%
West Middle SchoolRockford SD 20579316.93%12%
Abraham Lincoln Middle SchoolRockford SD 20573617.58%8%

61.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Illinois’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,021 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
18.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,021
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$164,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.50Bottom 29%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.9%Bottom 17%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±107125,002Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$19$1,021Top 29%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,551$164,500Bottom 40%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.6%Top 32%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
41/ 100
Ranks 815 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 283,790 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
342
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 20% nationally
Year over year
+25%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024285k282k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025309168
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+63%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 15°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.2 inches, including 37.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ROCKFORD GTR ROCKFORD AP, 10.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index59.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall37.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low15°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing52°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
59
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

65 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind.

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
HailElevated
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, lightning, heat wave, ice storm, winter weather, earthquake, drought, landslide, wildfire, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Winnebago County records 4.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.3 per 100,000 residents in Winnebago County.

Homicide
4.3
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.8
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
20.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
13.9
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Winnebago County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Winnebago County rather than Winnebago County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 56 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dane County Rgnl/Truax FldMSN56 mi9,006 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD69 mi11,245 ft
Quad Cities IntlMLI93 mi10,002 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
52
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.