61109Rockford, Illinois

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 61109.

48out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 11% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity6084th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured19
Schools4158th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured16
Growth3609th of 5,428 ZIP areas measured40
Housing affordabilityTop 11% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured99
Climate5936th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured59
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured62
Access6172nd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured66
Economic stability4148th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured53
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.8% and the Opportunity signal places 61109 in the bottom 2%.

In the public schools here, 9% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.9 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 2.2 times it.

At a glance

Population
26,768
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$62,973
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
695/sq mi
38.5 sq mi of land
Median age
36.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Rockford
Illinois
Metro area
Rockford, IL
Nearest major airport
ORD
61 mi · Chicago O'Hare Intl
Median home value
$139,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.8% is lower than 11% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 59,742 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,774$62,973Bottom 35%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,888$33,806Bottom 40%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.6%Top 24%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.1 minBottom 30%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.2%Bottom 35%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment59,742Top 47%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.4%Bottom 5%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 14%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force63,425Top 47%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation66.0%Top 28%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,020Bottom 23%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,120Bottom 21%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 47%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate5.8%Top 11%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $62,973 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Rockford, IL, the city containing this ZIP code.

9% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 13% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
9.5%
Bottom 15% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
12.8%
Bottom 15% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Jefferson High SchoolRockford SD 2052,17319.8
Cherry Valley Elementary SchoolRockford SD 20567617.313%20%
Swan Hillman Elem SchoolRockford SD 20558117.67%9%
Riverdahl Elem SchoolRockford SD 20553517.86%8%
Wm Nashold Early Childhood CenterRockford SD 20553025.2
Arthur Froberg Elem SchoolRockford SD 20542615.811%13%

72.5% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 10% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $959 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.2 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Cost of living
90.2

Prices here run about 10% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
18.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$959
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$139,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index90.2Bottom 10%of 6,0712023
Home price to income2.21Bottom 21%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.2%Bottom 20%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±44311,846Top 13%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$28$959Bottom 45%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,984$139,400Bottom 23%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.3%Top 46%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.5%Bottom 25%of 33,0282024 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
40/ 100
Ranks 3609 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.

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

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
143
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 25% nationally
Year over year
+28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Rockford, 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 37.2 inches, including 37.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

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, 1.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index59.02024 calendar year
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
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing52°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
59
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

62 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
TornadoModerate
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, lightning, ice storm, heat wave, 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. 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 — they say 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 61109 rather than 61109 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 61 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD61 mi11,245 ft
Dane County Rgnl/Truax FldMSN67 mi9,006 ft
Quad Cities IntlMLI91 mi10,002 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
48
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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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

61109 vs Rockford

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

61109
Rockford
Median household income
$62,973
vs
$54,752
Per capita income
$33,806
vs
$31,263
Population density
695/sq mi
vs
2,259/sq mi
Median home value
$139,400
vs
$129,000
Median gross rent
$959
vs
$985
Homeownership rate
64.2%
vs
54.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
18.2%
vs
23.5%
Poverty rate
17.6%
vs
21.3%
Median age
36.5
vs
37.7

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.