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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.90% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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 educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Lake Forest is a good choice for families with children because of several factors. Many other families with children live here, making it a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families. The city's good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic success. Many people own their own single-family homes, providing areas for children to play and stability in the community. Finally, Lake Forest's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

In Lake Forest, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.70 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.

For the size of the city, public transportation in Lake Forest is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the train. For Lake Forest, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

Lake Forest Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Lake Forest, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Lake Forest is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 73.83% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 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.