Evanston is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 77,517 people and 19 constituent neighborhoods, Evanston is the 14th largest community in Illinois. Evanston has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.
Evanston real estate is some of the most expensive in Illinois, although Evanston house values don't compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.
Also of interest is that Evanston has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Of important note, Evanston is also a city of artists. Evanston has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Evanston’s character.
A relatively large number of people in Evanston telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 19.29% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Evanston is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Evanston enrolled in college, Evanston has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students.
Not only is Evanston a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That’s because Evanston is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Evanston a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.
In Evanston, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.67 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the city is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
For the size of the city, public transportation in Evanston is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the subway. For Evanston, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.
Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Evanston. 68.26% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.
The per capita income in Evanston in 2018 was $57,626, which is wealthy relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $230,504 for a family of four. However, Evanston contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Evanston is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Evanston home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Evanston residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Evanston also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 11.77% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Evanston include German, Irish, English, Polish, and Italian.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Evanston's cultural character, accounting for 17.24% of the city’s population.
The most common language spoken in Evanston is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.