Belvidere is a medium-sized city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 20,698 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Belvidere is the 111st largest community in Illinois.

When you are in Belvidere, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 41.9% of Belvidere's employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 24.7% that do. Overall, Belvidere is a city of sales and office workers, production and manufacturing workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Belvidere who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.70%), sales jobs (9.99%), and food service (5.99%).

Belvidere is a very car-oriented city. This is because most people - 97.2% - drive by car to work every day, and few people choose alternative modes of transportation, such as public transit, cycling, or walking. In general, car-oriented communities have a layout that emphasizes streets, highways, and ease of parking, and sometimes this can be to the detriment of human-scale priorities such as walkability alongside roads, and public spaces. For example, strip malls are something you will find in Belvidere.

Being a small city, Belvidere does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Belvidere Information and Demographics

In Belvidere, just 8.75% of people over 25 hold a college degree, which is very low compared to the rest of the nation, whereas the average among all cities is 14.96%.

The per capita income in Belvidere in 2000 was $17,804, which is lower middle income relative to Illinois, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $71,216 for a family of four.

Belvidere is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Belvidere home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Belvidere is White, followed by African-American. Belvidere also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.57% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Belvidere include German, Irish, English, Swedish, Polish, Italian, and Norwegian.

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