Cowden, IL population, income and ZIP codes

Cowden village is a very small community in Illinois, with 547 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #914 of 1,462 ranked by population — larger than 37% of them. The median age here is 27.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Cowden village earn a median of $42,083 a year, 46.4% below the national figure of $78,538 and 43% below the $74,244 median for the 698 Illinois cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 27.2% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Cowden village is valued at $76,200, 74.9% below the national figure and 57% below the $179,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $767 a month, 45.4% below the national figure, or roughly $9,204 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 1.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 55.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 27.3 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address. With 547 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Cowden village against its county rather than against national figures.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.