Machesney Park, Illinois

Area Profile

22,630 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Machesney Park, in Winnebago County.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 35% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3662nd of 3,904 published cities30
SchoolsTop 45% of 2,668 published cities55
Growth1667th of 2,973 published cities47
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 published cities100
Climate3709th of 4,223 published cities59
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 4,182 published cities62
Access3741st of 4,226 published cities69
Economic stability2668th of 4,226 published cities53
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Machesney Park in the bottom 6%.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.2 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 18% of median household income and the median home is 2.3 times it.

At a glance

Population
22,630
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,489
Top 39% nationally
Density
1,784/sq mi
12.7 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
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
$173,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 22% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,066$75,489Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,291$36,950Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.7%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.1 minBottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.4%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment121,655Top 36%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.3%Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force128,231Top 36%June 2026
Labor force participation63.0%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,020Bottom 18%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,120Bottom 17%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 49%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 22%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,489 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.

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

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
25.5%
Top 44% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
26.5%
Bottom 46% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Harlem High SchoolHarlem UD 1221,88414.2
Donald C Parker Early Educ CenterHarlem UD 12257113.9
Machesney Elem SchoolHarlem UD 12236112.915%22%
Olson Park Elem SchoolHarlem UD 12229415.535%43%
Marquette Elem SchoolHarlem UD 12226815.822%17%
Ralston Elem SchoolHarlem UD 12223214.534%25%
Summit Academy ALOPBoone/Winnebago ROE0
Summit Academy RSSPBoone/Winnebago ROE0
Summit Academy TAOEPBoone/Winnebago ROE0

58.4% 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 $1,102 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.3 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,102
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$173,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.30Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.6%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3909,118Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$59$1,102Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,455$173,700Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.5%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 33%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
47/ 100
Ranks 1667 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 22,839 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 1.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
24
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.1
Bottom 32% nationally
Year over year
+100%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202423k23k
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
202020212022202320242025342.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+733%).

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.

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, 12.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
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
Seasonal temperature swing52°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, tornado and strong wind.

TornadoModerate
HailElevated
Strong windModerate
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 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.

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 · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.9
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 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 Machesney Park rather than Machesney 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dane County Rgnl/Truax FldMSN56 mi9,006 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD63 mi11,245 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY98 mi8,859 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
57
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Other cities in Rockford, IL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RockfordWinnebago County147,52147vs Machesney Park
BelvidereBoone County24,75251vs Machesney Park
Loves ParkWinnebago County23,50253vs Machesney Park
RoscoeWinnebago County10,706vs Machesney 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

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 Machesney Park

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6111522,364$75,36356