60543Oswego, Illinois

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 60543.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 8% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 35% of 6,210 published ZIP areas62
SchoolsTop 39% of 4,422 published ZIP areas60
GrowthTop 3% of 5,428 published ZIP areas82
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate5904th of 6,789 published ZIP areas59
Physical resilienceTop 21% of 6,709 published ZIP areas81
Access4805th of 6,791 published ZIP areas85
Economic stabilityTop 2% of 6,742 published ZIP areas89
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 490 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 49% on the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 16% of median household income and the median home is 2.9 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 60543 in the top 21% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
43,047
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$119,371
Top 10% nationally
Density
1,026/sq mi
41.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Oswego
Illinois
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nearest major airport
ORD
30 mi · Chicago O'Hare Intl
Median home value
$343,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 56% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 19,787 employed residents.

43% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,321$119,371Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,587$47,177Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.1%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.4 minTop 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher42.7%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,787Bottom 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.9%Top 25%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 20%June 2026
Labor force20,674Bottom 19%June 2026
Labor force participation69.9%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$73,380Top 30%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$54,720Top 33%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 36%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 44%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024119k106k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $119,371 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Oswego, IL, the city containing this ZIP code.

27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
27.2%
Top 41% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
33.0%
Top 37% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oswego High SchoolCUSD 3082,87015.9
Oswego East High SchoolCUSD 3082,75815.7
Traughber Jr High SchoolCUSD 3081,07018.125%31%
Thompson Jr High SchoolCUSD 30883217.027%32%
Southbury Elem SchoolCUSD 30867616.132%39%
Fox Chase Elementary SchoolCUSD 30866116.926%34%
Plank Junior HighCUSD 30859511.212%32%
Prairie Point Elem SchoolCUSD 30845515.240%34%
Churchill Elem SchoolCUSD 30842514.232%34%
Old Post Elementary SchoolCUSD 30838713.830%35%
Hunt Club ElemCUSD 3083578.727%27%
Brokaw Early Learning CenterCUSD 30834514.4

28.4% 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 $1,616 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,616
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$343,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.88Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate86.6%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±49514,666Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$216$1,616Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,039$343,800Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.2%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate1.3%Bottom 7%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
82/ 100
Top 3% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

At 13.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
490
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
13.5
Top 6% nationally
Year over year
+49%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
27.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Oswego, IL, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 33.8 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHICAGO AURORA MUNI AP, 10.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation33.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low15°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°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

81 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Kendall County records 2.8 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 9.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.1 per 100,000 residents in Kendall County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.6
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 Kendall 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 60543 rather than 60543 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 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD30 mi11,245 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY47 mi8,859 ft
Central Il Rgnl/Bloomington-NormalBMI88 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
74
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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
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.

60543 vs Oswego

How this ZIP area compares with Oswego as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

60543
Oswego
Median household income
$119,371
vs
$123,792
Per capita income
$47,177
vs
$47,866
Population density
1,026/sq mi
vs
2,298/sq mi
Median home value
$343,800
vs
$344,500
Median gross rent
$1,616
vs
$1,860
Homeownership rate
86.6%
vs
87.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
42.7%
vs
44.3%
Poverty rate
3.1%
vs
2.6%
Median age
39.0
vs
38.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.