One downside of living in Oak Forest is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Oak Forest, the average commute to work is 32.02 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.
Like elsewhere in America, most people in Oak Forest use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Oak Forest‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the train. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.
The overall education level of Oak Forest citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 30.10% 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 2022 was $41,268, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $165,072 for a family of four. However, Oak Forest contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Oak Forest is an extremely 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 17.98% 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.
