Lincoln & Logan County, Illinois
What the numbers here
actually look like.
Population, workforce, wages, what it costs to operate, and how freight and people move in and out. Sourced and dated, so you can check any of it.
At A Glance
people
wages
region
access
cost
training
sites
sources
At a glance
Logan County is who you hire from day one. The 45 mile radius is who you can reach, and who can reach you.
27,182
People in Logan County
Census, July 2025
10,828
Civilian labor force
BLS, June 2026
4.5%
Unemployment rate
BLS, June 2026
850,991
People within 45 miles
LEAD, 2019
People and households
Census figures below are the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey, expressed in 2024 dollars.
Median age
41.1
Median household income
$66,358
Per capita income
$35,126
Persons per household
2.16
High school graduate or higher
92.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
20.9%
Labor force participation
54.8%
Mean travel time to work
21 min
Logan County also has 536 employer establishments and a total annual payroll of $289.3 million, according to the 2023 County Business Patterns.
Wages
Two figures matter here, and they measure different things. Federal statistics do not publish a single "area median wage" for a county this size, so both are given rather than being blended into one number.
$1,027
Average weekly wage, all covered employment. About $53,400 a year.
BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q1 2025. Illinois averages $1,662, and the country averages $1,589.
$52,909 / $37,182
Median earnings for men and women.
Census ACS 2020 to 2024.
An average and a median are not interchangeable. If you are writing a wage commitment into an application, say which of these you are measuring against.
Lincoln and the region
The 45-mile column covers Logan, Sangamon, Macon, McLean, Tazewell, Mason, Menard, DeWitt, and Peoria counties. This table is LEAD's 2019 data and is kept here because the regional breakdown has no current equivalent.
| 2019 | LINCOLN AREA (Logan County) | 45 MILE RADIUS (Nine counties) |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 28,618 | 850,991 |
| Employment | 12,320 | 515,071 |
| Personal income | 1.08B | 41.69B |
| Most jobs, by industry | Government / Healthcare & social assistance / Retail trade | Healthcare & social assistance / Government / Retail trade |
| Adding jobs fastest (since 2001) | Healthcare & social assistance / Transportation & warehousing / Educational services | Finance & insurance / Healthcare & social assistance / Real estate, rental & leasing |
| Biggest earnings by industry | Manufacturing — $118M / Healthcare & social assistance — $74M / Wholesale trade — $39M | Government — $5,402M / Healthcare & social assistance — $4,806M / Finance & insurance — $3,635M |
| Earnings growing fastest | Healthcare & social assistance — $24M / Wholesale trade — $13M / Administrative & waste services — $12M | Finance & insurance — $1,146M / Healthcare & social assistance — $1,040M / Professional & technical services — $341M |
What that says about the local economy
Government, healthcare, and retail employ the most people in Logan County, but manufacturing earns the most, at $118 million. That gap is the story. More people work in public sector and service jobs, and fewer work in the jobs that pay the most here.
Healthcare and social assistance shows up on every list: biggest employer regionally, adding jobs since 2001, and growing earnings faster than anything else locally. Transportation and warehousing is the other local grower, which tracks with sitting on I-55 between Chicago and St. Louis.
Getting in and out
By air
Distance from Lincoln:
Springfield
Abraham Lincoln Capital
26.8 mi
Bloomington — Central Illinois Regional
32.8 mi
Decatur Airport
34.2 mi
Peoria International
39.6 mi
Champaign — Willard
57.9 mi
St. Louis Lambert International
110.6 mi
Chicago O'Hare
147.6 mi
Four commercial airports sit inside a forty mile drive. Two international hubs are a straight run down or up I-55.
By road
30,300 vehicles pass Lincoln on I-55 every day.
Bloomington
31.7 mi
Springfield
32.7 mi
Decatur, via Highway 121
34.5 mi
Peoria metro, via
I-155
44.9 mi
Decatur is the Midwest Inland Port. Peoria is Caterpillar, Komatsu and Precision Planting. Springfield is the state government. Bloomington is insurance.
By rail
Two Class I railroads serve Lincoln: Canadian National and Union Pacific. An industrial user here can bid both rather than take whatever one carrier offers.
Lincoln also has an Amtrak stop and station on the Union Pacific line, part of the high speed corridor between Chicago and St. Louis.
What it costs
Housing and taxes
Median home value
Census ACS, owner-occupied
$134,400
Median gross rent
Census ACS
$829
Homeownership rate
68.5%
Median effective property tax rate
National median is 1.02%
2.68%
Median annual property tax bill
$4,563
Census values owner-occupied homes at $134,400. Sale-price sources put the median nearer $162,930. The two measure different things, so the figure you use should say which
Housing and taxes
- Electric and natural gas: Ameren Illinois
- Water and wastewater: Illinois American Water
- Internet: Frontier, Comcast Xfinity, i3 Broadband, CTI Fiber, and HughesNet for satellite
Five internet providers, including two fiber operators, which is unusual for a county this size.
Training already running here
LEAD runs Everyday Professional Skills, a five-evening workshop series on employer-relevant skills. Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30 to 8:30, at Hope on 5th, with dinner at 5.
Sites and incentives
Available property and the incentives that apply to it live elsewhere on this site.
Part of northwest Lincoln is a federal opportunity zone.
Sources
- Population, income, age, education, housing, commute: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Logan County and the 2020–2024 American Community Survey
- Labor force and unemployment: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, via FRED
- Average weekly wage: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q1 2025
- Property tax: Logan County property tax data
- Utilities and internet providers: City of Lincoln
- Airport distances: Closest airports to Lincoln, IL
- Regional nine-county table, highway counts and rail: LEAD, 2019
If you are building a business plan or an application on these figures, confirm anything you are relying on. LEAD will help you source current numbers.
Need something that is not here?
LEAD pulls custom data for companies looking at Lincoln. If you need a number for a site selection package, a board deck, or a grant application, ask and we will go get it.