Forest Park, Illinois

Area Profile

13,943 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Forest Park, in Cook County.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 39% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3443rd of 3,904 cities measured36
Schools1716th of 2,668 cities measured40
GrowthTop 50% of 2,973 cities measured51
Housing affordabilityTop 48% of 4,223 cities measured82
Climate3082nd of 4,223 cities measured63
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 4,182 cities measured69
AccessTop 29% of 4,226 cities measured97
Economic stability2312th of 4,226 cities measured58
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.8% and the Opportunity signal places Forest Park in the bottom 12%.

In the public schools here, 11% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.7 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 9 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
13,943
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,221
Top 37% nationally
Density
5,805/sq mi
2.4 sq mi of land
Median age
40.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cook County
Illinois
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nearest major airport
ORD
9 mi · Chicago O'Hare Intl
Median home value
$304,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.8% is lower than 9% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.1% over the past year, to 2,585,306 employed residents.

52% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 89% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$12,860$77,221Top 37%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,566$54,640Top 13%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.6%Top 48%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.7 minTop 35%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.5%Top 11%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment2,585,306Top 2%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.6%Bottom 39%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.1%Bottom 5%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force2,744,862Top 2%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation65.7%Top 32%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$73,380Top 36%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$54,720Top 39%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.8%Top 9%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202481k73k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,221 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 — Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand157,920$40,550
General and Operations Managers122,930$109,390
Home Health and Personal Care Aides108,520$38,180
Registered Nurses100,240$100,490
Cashiers99,240$35,010
Fast Food and Counter Workers97,280$34,630

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Cook County, IL, which contains this city.

11% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 29% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
11.1%
Bottom 16% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
29.2%
Top 47% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Proviso Math and Science AcademyProviso Twp HSD 20992518.5
Field Stevenson Elem SchoolForest Park SD 9121410.216%41%
Forest Park Middle SchoolForest Park SD 911868.95%15%
Garfield Elem SchoolForest Park SD 9118612.4
Betsy Ross Elem SchoolForest Park SD 9113810.6

51.1% 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 $1,367 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,367
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$304,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.95Top 28%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate52.8%Bottom 12%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4127,649Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$82$1,367Top 25%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$29,087$304,700Top 28%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.2%Top 33%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 40%of 32,0012024 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
51/ 100
Top 50% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2020 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 fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 13,846 in 2024.

83% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 1.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
18
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.3
Bottom 36% nationally
Year over year
+157%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
83.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202414k14k
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
202020212022202320242025140.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+1300%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 85°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 11 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHICAGO MIDWAY AP, 6.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index84.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation34.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100112024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
84
90th percentile index
Days above 100
11
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

69 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding and earthquake.

Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, cold wave, tornado, heat wave, strong wind, hail, lightning, ice storm, landslide, wildfire, hurricane, coastal flooding, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Cook County records 10.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.4 per 100,000 residents in Cook County.

Homicide
10.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Cook 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 Forest Park rather than Forest Park 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 9 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD9 mi11,245 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY27 mi8,859 ft
South Bend IntlSBN78 mi8,412 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
57
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ChicagoCook County2,711,22654vs Forest Park
AuroraKane County179,89864vs Forest Park
NapervilleDuPage County150,69271vs Forest Park
JolietWill County150,44559vs Forest Park
ElginKane County114,93457vs Forest Park
WaukeganLake County89,07658vs Forest Park
CiceroCook County82,79748vs Forest Park
SchaumburgCook County76,86861vs Forest Park
HammondLake County76,76858vs Forest Park
EvanstonCook County76,34063vs Forest Park
Arlington HeightsCook County76,00566vs Forest Park
BolingbrookWill County74,09664vs Forest Park

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Forest Park

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6013013,943$77,22158