Galesburg, Illinois

Area Profile

29,481 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Galesburg, in Knox County.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 18% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3515th of 3,904 published cities34
Schools1826th of 2,668 published cities37
Growth2600th of 2,973 published cities26
Housing affordabilityTop 18% of 4,223 published cities96
Climate3763rd of 4,223 published cities59
Physical resilienceTop 49% of 4,182 published cities59
Access3124th of 4,226 published cities83
Economic stability3917th of 4,226 published cities30
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.7% and the Opportunity signal places Galesburg in the bottom 10%.

In the public schools here, 14% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.3 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 2.0 times it.

At a glance

Population
29,481
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$48,297
Bottom 20% nationally
Density
1,659/sq mi
17.8 sq mi of land
Median age
40.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Knox County
Illinois
Metro area
Galesburg, IL
Nearest major airport
MLI
35 mi · Quad Cities Intl
Median home value
$96,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.7% is lower than 11% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 10,930 employed residents.

Median household income of $48,297 is below 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,539$48,297Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,536$27,222Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.1%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.7 minBottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.7%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,930Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 46%June 2026
Labor force11,594Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation51.4%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.7%Top 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.64.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.7% 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
202120222023202448k39k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $48,297 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.

14% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 22% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
15
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
13.9%
Bottom 27% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
22.3%
Bottom 33% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Galesburg Senior High SchoolGalesburg CUSD 2051,15814.8
Steele SchoolGalesburg CUSD 20554213.619%31%
Lombard Middle SchoolGalesburg CUSD 20553413.78%12%
Galesburg Jr High SchoolGalesburg CUSD 20551816.217%27%
King SchoolGalesburg CUSD 20551014.610%14%
Silas Willard Elem SchoolGalesburg CUSD 20542511.216%28%
Bright Futures Pre-K ProgGalesburg CUSD 20517622.0
RAES WestHenderson/Knox/Mercer/Warren ROE0
RAES Night SchoolHenderson/Knox/Mercer/Warren ROE0
RAES West Alt EdHenderson/Knox/Mercer/Warren ROE0
Knox Co Mary Davis Detention HomeGalesburg CUSD 2050
RAES East Alt EdHenderson/Knox/Mercer/Warren ROE0

76.3% 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 $801 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
19.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$801
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$96,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.00Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.2%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±33714,156Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$49$801Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,983$96,400Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.9%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.8%Top 47%2024 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
26/ 100
Ranks 2600 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 29,289 in 2024.

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

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 6% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202430k29k
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
20222023202420252.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−100%).

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 14°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.0 inches, including 25.9 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GALESBURG, 0.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation39.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall25.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low14°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing53°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

59 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
HailElevated
Cold waveModerate
TornadoModerate
Inland floodingModerate

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

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.

Knox County records 4.4 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 9.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.9 per 100,000 residents in Knox County.

Homicide
4.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.0
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 Knox 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 Galesburg rather than Galesburg 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 35 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Quad Cities IntlMLI35 mi10,002 ft
General Downing - Peoria IntlPIA41 mi10,104 ft
Central Il Rgnl/Bloomington-NormalBMI83 mi8,000 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
51
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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

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 Galesburg

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6140130,580$50,54652
614021,623