Oak Park is a larger medium-sized village located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 52,524 people and 12 constituent neighborhoods, Oak Park is the 26th largest community in Illinois. Oak Park has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic villages in the country.

Oak Park is a decidedly white-collar village, with fully 92.09% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Oak Park is a village of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Oak Park who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.34%), management occupations (12.56%), and teaching (9.77%).

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

Also of interest is that Oak Park has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One thing noticeable about Oak Park, although not a huge village, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That's because Oak Park is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Oak Park a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Oak Park is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." While both of these categories describe educated professionals, urban sophisticates are quite a different demographic. 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.

One downside of living in Oak Park is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Oak Park, the average commute to work is 30.31 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

For their daily commute to and from work, many people in Oak Park choose to take public transit. Most of these commuters are using the subway.

Oak Park Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Oak Park, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Oak Park is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 62.12% 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 Oak Park in 2000 was $36,340, which is wealthy relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $145,360 for a family of four.

Oak Park is a very ethnically-diverse village. The people who call Oak Park home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Oak Park is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Oak Park include Irish, German, Italian, English, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in Oak Park is English. Some people also speak Spanish.