Waukegan, IL population, income and ZIP codes

Waukegan city is a small city in Illinois, with 88,919 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #9 of 1,462 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 34.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Waukegan city earn a median of $70,578 a year, 10.1% below the national figure of $78,538 and 5% below the $74,244 median for the 698 Illinois cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 15.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Waukegan city is valued at $177,600, 41.5% below the national figure and within a couple of points of the $179,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,163 a month, 17.3% below the national figure, or roughly $13,956 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 50.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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.