Riverdale, Illinois

Area Profile

10,340 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Riverdale, in Cook County.

41out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 2% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3873rd of 3,904 published cities18
Schools2423rd of 2,668 published cities18
Growth2898th of 2,973 published cities11
Housing affordability3391st of 4,223 published cities60
Climate3082nd of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 4,182 published cities69
AccessTop 32% of 4,226 published cities96
Economic stability4149th of 4,226 published cities20
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.8% and the Opportunity signal places Riverdale in the bottom 1%.

Rent takes 37% of median household income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened.

A major airport is 12 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
10,340
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$39,833
Bottom 10% nationally
Density
2,892/sq mi
3.6 sq mi of land
Median age
32.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cook County
Illinois
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nearest major airport
GYY
12 mi · Gary/Chicago Intl
Median home value
$113,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.8% is lower than 9% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.1% over the past year, to 2,585,306 employed residents.

Median household income of $39,833 is below 90% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,683$39,833Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,835$19,290Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate41.5%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.6 minTop 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.0%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment2,585,306Top 2%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.6%Bottom 39%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.1%Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force2,744,862Top 2%June 2026
Labor force participation57.8%Bottom 41%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)0.8%Top 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.8%Top 9%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202446k38k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $39,833 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 Cook County, IL, which contains this city.

9% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 9% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
9.0%
Bottom 11% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
9.0%
Bottom 3% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Carver Primary SchoolChicago Public Schools Dist 29946715.110%10%
Carver Military Academy HSChicago Public Schools Dist 29942013.1
Calumet Elem SchoolCalumet Public SD 13231622.6
Burr Oak Elem SchoolCalumet Public SD 13229032.2
Burr Oak AcademyCalumet Public SD 13228914.4
Washington Elem SchoolDolton SD 14828214.1
CICS - Bond Campus · charterChicago Public Schools Dist 29927916.45%5%
Aldridge Elem SchoolChicago Public Schools Dist 29925713.510%10%
Dubois Elem SchoolChicago Public Schools Dist 29920110.110%10%
Park Elementary SchoolDolton SD 14819712.3
Gen George Patton Elem SchoolGen George Patton SD 13318410.810%10%
Riverdale SchoolDolton SD 14813712.5

76.9% 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 $1,231 takes 37% of median household income, above 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
37.1%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,231
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$113,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.86Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate51.5%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4355,054Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$66$1,231Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,316$113,800Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income37.1%Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate25.6%Top 16%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
11/ 100
Ranks 2898 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 10,299 in 2024.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202411k10k
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
2020202120222023202420250.00.0
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 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 11 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

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, 11.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index84.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation34.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100112024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
84
90th percentile index
Days above 100
11
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

69 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate

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

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.

Cook County records 10.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.4 per 100,000 residents in Cook County.

Homicide
10.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.3
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 Cook 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 Riverdale rather than Riverdale 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY12 mi8,859 ft
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD27 mi11,245 ft
South Bend IntlSBN68 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
41
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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 Riverdale
AuroraKane County179,89864vs Riverdale
NapervilleDuPage County150,69271vs Riverdale
JolietWill County150,44559vs Riverdale
ElginKane County114,93457vs Riverdale
WaukeganLake County89,07658vs Riverdale
CiceroCook County82,79748vs Riverdale
SchaumburgCook County76,86861vs Riverdale
HammondLake County76,76858vs Riverdale
EvanstonCook County76,34063vs Riverdale
Arlington HeightsCook County76,00566vs Riverdale
BolingbrookWill County74,09664vs Riverdale

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 Riverdale side by side with a similar place.

Riverdale vs InksterRiverdale vs SaginawRiverdale vs MelvindaleRiverdale vs Camden

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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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 Riverdale

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6082724,713$37,21740