Knox County, IL
Demographic and economic profile of Knox County, IL, sourced from the US Census Bureau (American Community Survey) via Data USA.
AI Overview
Knox County's economy reflects a mid-sized rural Illinois county with a GDP per capita of $36,210 and median worker earnings of $35,440, pointing to a modest but stable wage base. The labor force participation rate of 53.8% is relatively low, and just 20.3% of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while the 4.5% unemployment rate and a poverty rate of 15.9% indicate ongoing economic pressure in a county that has shed 3.3% of its population over five years. Housing costs are low—median home value of $104,900 and median gross rent of $725/month—and a 70.8% homeownership rate reflects an affordable, owner-occupied residential market with a median household income of $57,030.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · generated Jul 6, 2026 · derived from cached Census, BEA & ACS data on this page
Population Growth (5-year)
-3.3% since 2018
Knox County lost population at this rate over the prior 5-year ACS5 window.
Demographics
Race & Ethnicity
- White Alone40,178 (81.9%)
- Black or African American Alone3,962 (8.1%)
- Two Races Including Some Other Race1,893 (3.9%)
- Two Races Excluding Some Other Race, & Three or More Races1,507 (3.1%)
- Some Other Race Alone853 (1.7%)
- Asian Alone617 (1.3%)
Top Languages Spoken at Home
- 1.Spanish1,530
- 2.French (incl. Cajun, Haitian)362
- 3.Other Indo-European228
- 4.German or other West Germanic138
- 5.Vietnamese80
Economy
Cost of Living Index
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Not yet cached
Top Industries
- 1.Educational Services, & Health Care & Social Assistance6,530
- 2.Retail Trade (Group)3,112
- 3.Manufacturing (Group)1,870
- 4.Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation, & Accommodation & Food Services1,805
- 5.Transportation & Warehousing, & Utilities1,683
Top Occupations
- 1.Management, Business, Science, & Arts Occupations7,162
- 2.Sales & Office Occupations4,424
- 3.Service Occupations3,808
- 4.Production, Transportation, & Material Moving Occupations3,656
- 5.Natural Resources, Construction, & Maintenance Occupations2,079
Specialized Industries (Location Quotient)
- 1.Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting, & Mining (LQ 2.16×)714
- 2.Transportation, Warehousing, & Utilities (LQ 1.49×)1,803
- 3.Educational Services & Health Care (LQ 1.35×)6,565
- 4.Retail Trade (LQ 1.33×)3,006
- 5.Wholesale Trade (LQ 0.98×)468
Housing
Education
Workforce
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More on FDI Connect
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Data: US Census Bureau American Community Survey, served via Data USA and the Census Bureau API. See each metric tile for the specific dataset.