Oh, to be a Glenconian. Or is it a Glenconer?
Either way, life looks pretty good in Glencoe these days. The North Shore town boasts among the Chicago area’s highest education levels, marriage rates and median household incomes, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The census Wednesday released estimates from its American Community Survey. Collected nationally over five years, it offers the most detailed portrait of Chicago and its suburbs from 2007 through 2011. The voluminous data sets — which offer insight on everything from annual household income to the average number of bathrooms per home — are typically used by retailers, city planners, builders and police departments when mapping out long-term strategies.
In many respects, the survey also serves as a brag book for various communities. Without it, Chicagoland would never know which town boasts one of the youngest populations (North Chicago, 24 years), which have among the shortest commutes (Rosemont and Northlake, where just 3 percent have a trip longer than 60 minutes) and which has the most mortgage-free homes (Hodgkins, 33 percent).
Not surprisingly, North Shore communities like Glencoe, Wilmette, Kenilworth and Winnetka top categories involving income, education and standards of living. Even their commute times —between 14 and 20 percent of residents in those towns have commutes longer than a hour — don’t seem that bad when compared with, say, far south suburban University Park, where about 31 percent of the population travels more than 60 minutes to work each day.
“They really represent the upper stratum of income and education,” Chicago-based demographer Rob Paral said.
Perhaps that explains why Glencoe native Carly Goldstein, 34, decided to move back to her hometown after giving birth to twins a few years ago. According to the new estimates, she returned to a town where an estimated 71 percent of the women are married, 84 percent of the residents have college degrees and the median household income is $174,931.
All three categories far exceed the national average and are among the highest of the 288 Chicago-area communities surveyed.
“When we made the decision to move out to the suburbs, there really wasn’t a question about where we were going to go,” Goldstein said.
The survey lists Kenilworth, Winnetka, Long Grove, Bannockburn, Riverwoods, Glencoe, Kildeer, Green Oaks, Golf and Hawthorn Woods among the wealthiest communities based on median income. Kenilworth is estimated to be the richest, with a median household income of $242,188 annually, nearly four times the median income of the metro area as a whole.
Several of those same communities — Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Bannockburn and Golf — also are among the most educated. Winnetka is estimated to have the most educated population, with 88 percent of adults 25 and older having a bachelor’s degree or higher.
An estimated 34 percent of people regionwide have bachelor’s degrees, according to the estimates.
“People that are here are well-educated,” longtime Winnetka real estate agent Jean Wright said. “When they’re looking for a good house, they’re looking for a place where their children can have the same opportunities that they had.”
And those children often return to the area after college to start a family of their own too.
“It’s a nice, vicious circle,” Wright said.
Although the new survey may give several communities reasons to puff out their chests, it could cause some hand-wringing for others. Leaders in Oak Brook, for example, were well-aware of its aging population long before the census figures put it among the oldest communities with a median age of nearly 54 years.
Village officials already were so concerned about that they formed a committee to find ways to attract young families to the community known for mansions and a high-end shopping mall.
Local officials see potential problems that include the difficulties seniors could have maintaining their properties, declining school enrollment and the need for more senior or assisted living housing.
Todd Rusteberg, 43, who is on a new village committee working to attract young families, said he believes that residents might be asked to consider major changes that could include building more affordable housing or a new school.
“We have an aging population, and we want to do everything we can to maintain their property values,” he said. “It’s important that the citizens of Oak Brook embrace change.”
But former Village President Karen Bushy, 72, said the village is going through a natural phase that eventually will lead to young people moving in as older ones downsize or die.
“I really don’t understand what difference it makes to the village if I’m 42 years old, 52, 62 or 72,” she said. “They still have to provide my water and snowplow my streets. The services they provide are not age-related.”
The survey also looks at jobs in the area. In far northwest suburban Harvard, nearly 32 percent of the workforce hold manufacturing jobs, among the highest in the region. Areawide, the corresponding rate was just under 13 percent.
That came as a surprise to Nick Leicht, the owner of Atlas Manufacturing, a precision machining company that employs 17 people and has been in the community for 16 years. Manufacturing jobs have been scarce since the Motorola plant, which employed 5,000 people, closed in 2003, he said.
“Motorola has been sitting empty for a few years now,” Leicht said. “There’s not a lot of jobs. We’ve seen demand go down right now.”
As the new census data were being broken down and analyzed Wednesday, many towns celebrated the rankings that set them apart.
Summit Mayor Joseph Strzelczyk said he wasn’t surprised that nearly 71 percent of village residents over 5 years old speak a language other than English at home, one of the highest rates in the area. He said his neighbors in the village of about 11,000 people speak everything from Polish to Spanish to Russian to Greek, and there’s even a growing community of Albanians.
“Diversity is what the United States got strong on,” said the mayor, who learned Polish in school as a young boy. “Different people learn to live with each other, people learn how to take care of each other.”
Farther south, Robbins had among the lowest rates of non-English speakers, with just about 2 percent using another language at home. James Dyson Jr., 33, said most families in his tight-knit, predominantly African-American village have lived there for generations. He speculated that Robbins doesn’t have many immigrants — the census figures show only 2 percent of the population is foreign-born — so almost everyone speaks English.
He said he thinks it’s easier that way because everyone can understand one another.
Robbins also stood out for its high number of bachelors and bachelorettes. Only about 25 percent of men and 22 percent of women are married, compared with statewide averages closer to 50 percent.
“People are afraid of commitment today,” said Dyson, who was working at Unique’s Barber Shop. “Back in the day, everyone got married.”
He isn’t married and said he has no desire to tie the knot.
“For what? I think it’s overrated. All you get is a piece of paper and a ring,” he said.
The low marriage rate could be a reason for another Robbins outlier — many older residents live by themselves. Census data showed that about 26 percent of households have someone 65 or older living alone.
Grace Jackson, who will turn 65 in April, said she likes living alone, and many neighbors in her predominantly senior apartment complex feel the same way.
“I’m an independent person,” she said. “I like having my own life.”
Tribune reporters Angie Leventis Lourgos, Annemarie Mannion and Vikki Ortiz Healy and freelance reporter Brian L. Cox contributed.
arichards@tribune.com jhuston@tribune.com sstclair@tribune.com
