Jacksonville, Illinois

Area Profile

18,014 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Jacksonville, in Morgan County.

62out of 100
Area Score
Top 44% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 43% of 3,904 cities measured60
Schools1395th of 2,668 cities measured50
Growth1831st of 2,973 cities measured44
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 cities measured100
Climate3425th of 4,223 cities measured61
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 4,182 cities measured62
Access2906th of 4,226 cities measured86
Economic stability3903rd of 4,226 cities measured31
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.9% and median household income $65,432, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 20% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.8 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 13% of median household income and the median home is 2.0 times it.

At a glance

Population
18,014
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,432
Bottom 48% nationally
Density
1,705/sq mi
10.6 sq mi of land
Median age
37.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Morgan County
Illinois
Metro area
Jacksonville, IL
Nearest major airport
SPI
31 mi · Abraham Lincoln Capital
Median home value
$128,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 14,402 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,567$65,432Bottom 48%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,607$32,994Bottom 47%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.5%Top 27%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.1 minBottom 9%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.6%Top 45%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,402Bottom 13%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.1%Top 33%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 40%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force14,991Bottom 13%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation54.3%Bottom 31%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 44%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202465k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,432 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.

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

20% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
20.4%
Bottom 46% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
24.7%
Bottom 41% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Jacksonville High SchoolJacksonville SD 11789013.1
Jacksonville Middle SchoolJacksonville SD 11768012.417%22%
Eisenhower Elem SchoolJacksonville SD 11734915.931%31%
South Jacksonville Elem SchoolJacksonville SD 11731115.621%18%
Washington Elem SchoolJacksonville SD 11726413.918%25%
The Early YearsJacksonville SD 11724727.4
Lincoln Elem SchoolJacksonville SD 11724612.314%30%
North Jacksonville SchoolJacksonville SD 11713510.425%30%
Ivan K Garrison CenterFour Rivers Spec Educ Dist0
Crossroad Learning CenterJacksonville SD 1170
LIFE (Learning in Functional EnviFour Rivers Spec Educ Dist0
Early ChildhoodFour Rivers Spec Educ Dist0

60.9% 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 $711 takes 13% 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
13.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$711
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$128,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income1.96Bottom 22%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.1%Bottom 27%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2477,847Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$51$711Bottom 17%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,736$128,200Bottom 31%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.0%Bottom 14%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.0%Top 37%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
44/ 100
Ranks 1831 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 17,801 in 2024.

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

At 0.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
11
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.6
Bottom 23% nationally
Year over year
+175%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202418k18k
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
20222023202420257.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.4 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JACKSONVILLE 2, 1.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation41.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing50°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

62 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtElevated
Strong windElevated
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate
Inland floodingModerate
TornadoElevated

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, landslide, ice storm, lightning, 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.

Morgan County records 3.7 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 15.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.3 per 100,000 residents in Morgan County.

Homicide
3.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.3
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 Morgan 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 Jacksonville rather than Jacksonville 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 31 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Abraham Lincoln CapitalSPI31 mi8,001 ft
St Louis RgnlALN59 mi8,099 ft
St Louis Lambert IntlSTL68 mi11,020 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
62
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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 Jacksonville

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6265024,821$65,76263