Winnetka is a somewhat small village located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 12,388 people and four constituent neighborhoods, Winnetka is the 183rd largest community in Illinois. Winnetka has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic villages in the country.

Winnetka is a decidedly white-collar village, with fully 97.65% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Winnetka is a village of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Winnetka who work in management occupations (24.36%), sales jobs (18.27%), and business and financial occupations (12.64%).

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 7.63% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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, Winnetka is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

Because of many things, Winnetka is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Winnetka really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Winnetka perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

One downside of living in Winnetka is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Winnetka, the average commute to work is 34.26 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Winnetka Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Winnetka. 84.41% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Winnetka in 2000 was $84,134, which is wealthy relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $336,536 for a family of four. However, Winnetka contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Winnetka home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Winnetka is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Winnetka include Irish, German, English, Italian, Polish, Russian, European, Scottish, and Swedish.

The most common language spoken in Winnetka is English.