Census: Wilmette, Kenilworth Residents are Richer, Older, Married, More Educated

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released estimates from its American Community Survey, which provides local statistics for the combined years from 2007 to 2011 on everything from housing to employment to marital status in communities throughout the country.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Wilmette and Kenilworth residents on average tended to be older, more educated and wealthier than the average Illinois resident.

Both villages also had a higher percentage of families with married parents and a higher percentage of families with children than state averages.

Take a look at the following interesting facts and check out a larger table at the bottom of the page.

• 19.2 percent of Wilmette residents reported that they spoke a language other than English at home, though only 5.9 percent said they spoke that language “very well”.
• 22.6 percent of Wilmette residents said they were of German ancestry. That was the highest percentage, followed by Irish (18.7 percent), English (11.6 percent), Italian (7 percent), Polish (7 percent), Russian (5.5 percent) and American (5.1 percent).
• Wilmette residents tend to be young or old. 31 percent of the population is under the age of 20; 38.8 percent of the population fell between the ages of 40 and 60; and 23.2 percent of the population was listed as over 60-years-old. But only 13.3 percent of Wilmette’s population said they were between the ages of 20 and 40.
• 69.7 percent of Kenilworth homes and 33.6 percent of Wilmette homes were built before 1939.
• Over half of Kenilworth households (56.4 percent) list an income of more than $200,000 per year.
• Even though the median household income in Kenilworth is about $112,000 more than in Wilmette, residents of Kenilworth were about twice as likely to take public transportation to work.
• “Kenilworth is estimated to be the richest, with a median household income of $242,188 annually, nearly four times the median income of the metro area as a whole,” according to a recent Chicago Tribune article.

Wilmette

Kenilworth

Illinois

Total Population

27,010

2,565

12,790,182

Families with children

40.6%

51.6%

30.8%

Families that are married

68.2%

83.1%

49%

High School degree

98.4%

98.5%

86.8%

College degrees

78.7%

87.5%

30.7%

Graduate degrees

43.8%

46.4%

11.6%

Foreign Born

15.2%

5.4%

13.7%

Mean travel time to work (minutes)

32.1

34.5

28.1

Median household income

$130,260

$242,188

$56,575

Percentage of all families with income below the poverty line

1.5%

1.2%

9.6%

Income of less than $10k

1.6%

2.4%

6.8%

Income of $100,000 - $149,999

18.2%

15.5%

13.7%

Income of $150,000 - $199,999

10.6%

8.4%

5.1%

Income of $200,000 or more

32%

56.4%

5.0%

Median Age (years)

44.1

40.1

36.4

Median rooms in a home

7.4

More than 9

5.6

Median home value

$665,600

More than $1,000,000

$198,500

Drove alone to work

60.1%

49.8%

73.4%

Took public transportation to work

17.7%

34.3%

8.8%

Work from home

9.6%

6.4%

4%

Unemployment rate

3.8%

2.3%

9.3%

Tomorrow, we’ll have a table comparing similar data from various North Shore communities. Check back then to see how your town measures up.

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