Macomb, Illinois

Area Profile

14,894 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Macomb, in McDonough County.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 23% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3616th of 3,904 published cities31
Schools1576th of 2,668 published cities45
Growth2716th of 2,973 published cities21
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 4,223 published cities94
Climate3530th of 4,223 published cities60
Physical resilienceTop 32% of 4,182 published cities73
Access3689th of 4,226 published cities70
Economic stability3711th of 4,226 published cities35
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Macomb in the bottom 7%.

In the public schools here, 20% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.6 students for every teacher.

1 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, essentially level with the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
14,894
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$44,411
Bottom 15% nationally
Density
1,395/sq mi
10.7 sq mi of land
Median age
27.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
McDonough County
Illinois
Metro area
Macomb, IL
Nearest major airport
PIA
54 mi · General Downing - Peoria Intl
Median home value
$103,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.0% over the past year, to 10,868 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $44,411 is below 85% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,595$44,411Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,176$28,907Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate25.1%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.2 minBottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher35.4%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,868Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.0%Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force11,463Bottom 4%June 2026
Labor force participation62.2%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202444k34k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $44,411 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 McDonough County, IL, which contains this city.

20% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 21% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.9%
Bottom 44% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
20.9%
Bottom 27% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Macomb Senior High SchoolMacomb CUSD 18566017.4
Macomb Middle SchoolMacomb CUSD 18547912.927%32%
Lincoln Elem SchoolMacomb CUSD 18541210.317%12%
Edison Elementary SchoolMacomb CUSD 18539712.414%17%
MacArthur Early Childhood CenterMacomb CUSD 18512721.2
ROYALS Academy MacombHancck/Fultn/Schuylr/McDonogh ROE0
Western Area Career System 265Hancck/Fultn/Schuylr/McDonogh ROE0
ROYALS RSSP MacombHancck/Fultn/Schuylr/McDonogh ROE0
Project InsightWest Central IL Spec Educ Coop0
WCISEC HS EDWest Central IL Spec Educ Coop0

56.0% 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 $765 takes 21% 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
20.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$765
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$103,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.33Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate49.4%Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2107,464Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$44$765Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,988$103,300Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.7%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.1%Top 39%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
21/ 100
Ranks 2716 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 14,765 in 2024.

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

At 0.1 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
0.1
Bottom 7% nationally
Year over year
0%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k15k
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.

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 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.9 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BURLINGTON MUNI AP, 31.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation37.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing51°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

73 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 81% of measured US cities.

DroughtModerate
HailElevated
Cold waveElevated
Strong windHigh

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, ice storm, landslide, earthquake, winter weather, tornado, lightning, inland flooding, 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.

McDonough County records 3.4 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 14.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.9 per 100,000 residents in McDonough County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.9
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 McDonough 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 Macomb rather than Macomb 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 54 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
General Downing - Peoria IntlPIA54 mi10,104 ft
Quad Cities IntlMLI68 mi10,002 ft
Abraham Lincoln CapitalSPI68 mi8,001 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
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Put Macomb side by side with a similar place.

Macomb vs LimaMacomb vs CoshoctonMacomb vs KewaneeMacomb vs Galesburg

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 Macomb

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6145517,317$48,67954