Union County, IL
Demographic and economic profile of Union County, IL, sourced from the US Census Bureau (American Community Survey) via Data USA.
AI Overview
Union County is a small rural Illinois county of roughly 17,000 residents with a labor force participation rate of just 51.1% and an unemployment rate of 5.2%, reflecting a limited and older workforce — median age 44.3 years — with 20.9% holding a bachelor's degree or higher. Worker costs are low, with median worker earnings of $39,438 and a GDP per capita of $23,555, while housing remains inexpensive at a median home value of $131,700 and median gross rent of $658 per month. The county carries a 19.4% poverty rate and posted a population decline of 0.9% over five years, signaling ongoing demographic contraction.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · generated Jul 6, 2026 · derived from cached Census, BEA & ACS data on this page
Population Growth (5-year)
-0.9% since 2018
Union County lost population at this rate over the prior 5-year ACS5 window.
Demographics
Race & Ethnicity
- White Alone15,210 (89.5%)
- Two Races Including Some Other Race918 (5.4%)
- Two Races Excluding Some Other Race, & Three or More Races519 (3.1%)
- Black or African American Alone161 (0.9%)
- Asian Alone108 (0.6%)
- Some Other Race Alone43 (0.3%)
Top Languages Spoken at Home
- 1.Spanish752
- 2.Tagalog (incl. Filipino)18
- 3.Russian, Polish, or other Slavic16
- 4.German or other West Germanic13
- 5.Other Indo-European10
Economy
Cost of Living Index
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Not yet cached
Top Industries
- 1.Educational Services, & Health Care & Social Assistance1,935
- 2.Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation, & Accommodation & Food Services680
- 3.Retail Trade (Group)653
- 4.Public Administration (Group)634
- 5.Transportation & Warehousing, & Utilities519
Top Occupations
- 1.Management, Business, Science, & Arts Occupations2,124
- 2.Service Occupations1,721
- 3.Production, Transportation, & Material Moving Occupations1,116
- 4.Sales & Office Occupations1,042
- 5.Natural Resources, Construction, & Maintenance Occupations780
Specialized Industries (Location Quotient)
- 1.Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting, & Mining (LQ 2.79×)299
- 2.Public Administration (LQ 1.64×)522
- 3.Transportation, Warehousing, & Utilities (LQ 1.41×)556
- 4.Construction (LQ 1.24×)578
- 5.Educational Services & Health Care (LQ 1.23×)1,934
Housing
Education
Workforce
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More on FDI Connect
Compare Union County against other US geographies, save it to your shortlist, see active property listings on the interactive map, and unlock the full demographic dashboard.
Data: US Census Bureau American Community Survey, served via Data USA and the Census Bureau API. See each metric tile for the specific dataset.