Lake Forest is a medium-sized city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 20,018 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Lake Forest is the 118th largest community in Illinois.

Lake Forest is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 96.38% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Lake Forest is a city of managers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Lake Forest who work in management occupations (26.12%), sales jobs (18.87%), and office and administrative support jobs (9.96%).

Of important note, Lake Forest is also a city of artists. Lake Forest has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Lake Forest's character.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 9.90% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

In addition, Lake Forest is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness.' But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.

Because of many things, Lake Forest is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Lake Forest really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Lake Forest perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

One downside of living in Lake Forest is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Lake Forest, the average commute to work is 31.70 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Lake Forest is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. The train helps to get a lot of people to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Lake Forest area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Lake Forest Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Lake Forest. 73.83% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Lake Forest in 2000 was $77,092, which is wealthy relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $308,368 for a family of four. However, Lake Forest contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Lake Forest home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Lake Forest is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Lake Forest include German, Irish, English, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Greek, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Lake Forest is English. Some people also speak Spanish.