One downside of living in Oak Forest, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 32.62 minutes every day commuting to work. However, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.
For the size of the city, public transportation in Oak Forest is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the train. For Oak Forest, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.
The overall education level of Oak Forest citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 31.25% of adults in Oak Forest have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 21.84%.
The per capita income in Oak Forest in 2018 was $41,453, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $165,812 for a family of four. However, Oak Forest contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Oak Forest is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Oak Forest home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Oak Forest residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Oak Forest also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.71% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Oak Forest include Irish, German, Polish, Italian, and English.
The most common language spoken in Oak Forest is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Arabic.
