Mokena, Illinois

Area Profile

20,021 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Mokena, in Will County.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 23% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3046th of 3,904 published cities43
SchoolsTop 8% of 2,668 published cities85
Growth1843rd of 2,973 published cities44
Housing affordabilityTop 14% of 4,223 published cities97
Climate3082nd of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilienceTop 19% of 4,182 published cities83
Access2586th of 4,226 published cities89
Economic stabilityTop 10% of 4,226 published cities78
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.4% and the Opportunity signal places Mokena in the bottom 22%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 12% of median household income and the median home is 3.2 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Mokena in the top 19% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
20,021
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$123,889
Top 9% nationally
Density
2,293/sq mi
8.7 sq mi of land
Median age
46.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Will County
Illinois
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nearest major airport
GYY
25 mi · Gary/Chicago Intl
Median home value
$401,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.4% is lower than 15% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.0% over the past year, to 365,393 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 83% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 91% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$12,879$123,889Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,852$52,109Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.5%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.1 minTop 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher42.5%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment365,393Top 20%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.6%Bottom 41%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.0%Bottom 8%June 2026
Labor force386,203Top 20%June 2026
Labor force participation68.0%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$73,380Top 36%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$54,720Top 39%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.4%Top 15%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024129k114k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $123,889 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 Will County, IL, which contains this city.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
49.4%
Top 8% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
46.9%
Top 12% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Mokena Elem SchoolMokena SD 15970916.562%47%
Mokena Jr High SchoolMokena SD 15950212.642%57%
Mokena Intermediate SchoolMokena SD 15934615.734%32%

18.4% 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 $1,254 takes 12% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
12.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,254
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$401,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.24Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate90.6%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3647,602Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$114$1,254Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,252$401,400Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income12.1%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.0%Bottom 19%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
44/ 100
Ranks 1843 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 19,915 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward 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 0.9 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
0.9
Bottom 29% nationally
Year over year
+13%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k20k
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
2020202120222023202420253717
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−34%).

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.

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, 18.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation34.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°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

83 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
EarthquakeModerate

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

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY25 mi8,859 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD31 mi11,245 ft
South Bend IntlSBN82 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.

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Area Score
69
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Other cities in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

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

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.

Compare

Put Mokena side by side with a similar place.

Mokena vs WinfieldMokena vs ShorewoodMokena vs ElmhurstMokena vs Bloomingdale

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)
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 Mokena

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6044824,405$120,76169