ZIP 61754 vs ZIP 61774

This side-by-side compares ZIP 61754 (Mc Lean, IL) and ZIP 61774 (Stanford, IL) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 61754 has a population of 1,261 at 7 people per square mile, while ZIP 61774 has 962 at 9 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 61754 reports a median household income of $98,681 against $86,250 in ZIP 61774, with per-capita income of $55,237 vs $41,711. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 30.2% in 61754 and 24.6% in 61774. Poverty rate reads 4.2% vs 10.0%, and unemployment 1.0% vs 6.1% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $162,500 in 61754 versus $179,800 in 61774, with median rent of $1,118 and $1,142 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 83.2% vs 86.0%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.