Cook County, IL vs Polk County, IA

Every published reading for both counties side by side, with the better figure marked on each row. Open the live comparison to add up to two more counties.

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The same two counties on the map, with room for two more.

Figures from the 2024 release of the Census American Community Survey, checked September 2026. Health, hazard and price-level readings name their own release beside them.

Dollar for dollar

Reading	Cook CountyIllinois	Polk CountyIowa
Home valueMedian value of owner-occupied homes.	$324,500	$262,100
Price ratioMedian home value divided by median household income. How many years of full income equals the home price. Lower is more affordable.	3.9x income$324,500	3.1x income$262,100
RentMedian monthly rent for a whole rented home — any size, studio through 5+ bedrooms mixed together — not per bedroom. "Gross" means utilities are included on top of contract rent. Half the county's rentals cost less than this, half more.	$1,435/mo	$1,149/mo
Childcare costChildcare for two children as a share of the county's median household income. A burden percentage, not a dollar price.	29.0% of income	21.9% of income
ElectricityRoughly what this county's middle household pays for electricity each month, counting only homes that pay an electricity bill. The Census reports this as a $50-wide bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint, so the real median sits within about $25 of it. Bills vary widely with home size, climate and thermostat habits — this is what residents actually pay, not a quote for your home.	~$75	~$125
GasRoughly what this county's middle gas-billed household pays each month. The Census reports this as a bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint. Homes with no gas service at all are not counted, and in many counties that is most homes — an all-electric home would pay nothing here regardless.	~$87	~$87
Water & sewer (yearly)Roughly what this county's middle billed household pays for water and sewer per YEAR — unlike the monthly electricity and gas figures beside it. The Census reports this as a bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint. Homes on private wells or with water bundled into rent are not counted.	~$625	~$625
Household incomeMedian annual income of a whole household, all earners combined. Not one person's salary.	$83,498	$83,576

Electricity and gas brackets are monthly; water & sewer is yearly. Household income is context, not a cost. There is no total row because these measures mix dollars, ratios and brackets, and a sum of them would be an invented number.

Head-to-head

The trophy marks the better reading on each row. A row with no trophy is a tie or a reading one source did not publish.

Cost of Living

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
Median Home ValueMedian value of owner-occupied homes.	$324,500	$262,100
Home Price-to-Income RatioMedian home value divided by median household income. How many years of full income equals the home price. Lower is more affordable.	3.9x income$324,500	3.1x income$262,100
Rent BurdenAnnual whole-home rent (median gross rent × 12, any bedroom count) as a share of median household income. Below 30% is considered affordable; above 30% is cost-burdened.	20.6% of income$1,435	16.5% of income$1,149
Median Gross RentMedian monthly rent for a whole rented home — any size, studio through 5+ bedrooms mixed together — not per bedroom. "Gross" means utilities are included on top of contract rent. Half the county's rentals cost less than this, half more.	$1,435	$1,149
Property Tax Bill (Current Owners, Yearly)Median yearly property tax paid by the county's current homeowners. Long-held homes are often taxed on an old assessed value, so a new buyer usually pays more than this, and much more where the assessment resets at sale (California, Florida, Texas and seven more; each county's page says which rule applies). Withheld where the Census caps the figure at $10,000+ or its margin of error is wide.	$6,191	$4,396
Property Tax Rate (Current Owners)Median yearly property tax paid divided by median home value, for the county's current owners. Not the rate a buyer signs up for: assessment caps and homestead exemptions pull this below a new purchase everywhere, and far below it where value resets at sale.	1.91%	1.68%
Child Care Cost BurdenChildcare for two children as a share of the county's median household income. A burden percentage, not a dollar price.	29.0% of income	21.9% of income
Electricity Bill (Middle Household)Roughly what this county's middle household pays for electricity each month, counting only homes that pay an electricity bill. The Census reports this as a $50-wide bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint, so the real median sits within about $25 of it. Bills vary widely with home size, climate and thermostat habits — this is what residents actually pay, not a quote for your home.	~$75	~$125
Gas Bill (Middle Household)Roughly what this county's middle gas-billed household pays each month. The Census reports this as a bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint. Homes with no gas service at all are not counted, and in many counties that is most homes — an all-electric home would pay nothing here regardless.	~$87	~$87
Water & Sewer Bill (Middle Household, Yearly)Roughly what this county's middle billed household pays for water and sewer per YEAR — unlike the monthly electricity and gas figures beside it. The Census reports this as a bracket; the ~ figure is that bracket's midpoint. Homes on private wells or with water bundled into rent are not counted.	~$625	~$625

Jobs & Income

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
Median Household IncomeMedian annual income of a whole household, all earners combined. Not one person's salary.	$83,498	$83,576
Unemployment RateShare of the labor force that is unemployed. Withheld where the Census reports a zero with a margin of error, which is a tiny sample rather than full employment.	7.0%ACS	4.4%ACS

Health & Healthcare

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
Life ExpectancyEstimated average life expectancy at birth. Where CHR's own confidence interval spans more than a decade — which happens in counties with few recorded deaths — the estimate is treated as missing and a modeled figure is shown instead, marked as such. Shown for context only: it does not feed the fit score.	77.4 yrs	77.2 yrs
Poor or Fair HealthPercentage of adults who report poor or fair general health. This single measure reflects the combined effect of underlying factors like smoking rates, obesity, physical inactivity, and child poverty.	17.5%	17.0%
Uninsured RatePercentage of the population without health insurance coverage.	9.7%	5.5%
Health IndexComposite 0–100 score of five CHR health outcomes (higher is healthier), shown only where at least three are published. Shown for context only — its inputs already score individually, so counting it too would weight them twice.	69/100	68/100
Injury DeathsDeaths from all injuries — accidents and violence combined — per 100,000 people, averaged over five years. Measured mortality, not reported crime; it replaced an earlier score that was modeled from income and education rather than measured.	83 per 100k	77 per 100k
Premature Death RateYears of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population. Lower is better.	8,536 per 100k	7,653 per 100k
Adult Obesity RatePercentage of adults with a body mass index of 30 or higher.	32.8%	38.9%
Adult Smoking RatePercentage of adults who currently smoke cigarettes.	12.0%	17.7%
Physical Inactivity RatePercentage of adults who report no leisure-time physical activity.	20.9%	24.2%
Diabetes PrevalencePercentage of adults diagnosed with diabetes.	10.8%	10.0%
Child Poverty RatePercentage of children under 18 living in poverty.	17.2%	15.3%
Food InsecurityPercentage of the population who lack adequate access to food.	12.1%	10.2%

Commute & Daily Life

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
Mean Commute TimeAverage one-way travel time to work.	32 min	20 min
Income InequalityRatio of household income at the 80th to 20th percentile. Higher means more inequality.	5.43x	4.05x
Broadband AccessPercentage of households with a broadband internet connection.	89.2%	90.5%
Child Care CentersLicensed childcare centers per 1,000 children under five — availability, as distinct from the cost burden.	4.6 per 1,000 children	7.7 per 1,000 children

Environment & Disaster Risk

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
Natural Hazard RiskWhere this county's expected annual dollar loss to natural hazards ranks among all US counties (18 hazard types; frequency × exposed people and property × social vulnerability). It ranks dollars at stake, not how often disasters happen — a big city under rare hazards can outrank a rural county under frequent ones, simply because more is exposed.	100th pctile	92nd pctile
Wildfire RiskPercentile of expected annual dollar loss to wildfire among all US counties — event frequency times the people and property in the burnable area. High-value counties rank high even when fires are infrequent.	56th pctile	58th pctile
Hurricane RiskPercentile of expected annual dollar loss to hurricanes among all US counties. Inland counties FEMA marks not-applicable show no value rather than a zero score, so about a quarter of counties carry no figure here.	49th pctile	27th pctile
Tornado RiskPercentile of expected annual dollar loss to tornadoes among all US counties — frequency times exposed people and property. A dense county where tornadoes are genuinely rare can still rank in the 70s because one rare strike over a city costs more than frequent strikes over empty plains; this is a dollars-at-stake ranking, not a how-often ranking.	100th pctile	98th pctile
Earthquake RiskPercentile of expected annual dollar loss to earthquakes among all US counties. Rare-but-severe fault-line exposure dominates: a county can go decades quiet and still rank near the top because the eventual event is priced in.	98th pctile	67th pctile
Flood RiskPercentile of expected annual dollar loss to flooding among all US counties (the higher of coastal or riverine).	100th pctile	92nd pctile
Good Air Quality DaysPercentage of monitored days with AQI in the 'Good' category (0–50). Higher is better.	28.0%	46.0%
Median Air Quality IndexMedian annual AQI. Below 50 is Good; 51–100 is Moderate; above 100 is unhealthy.	AQI 57	AQI 52

Schools & Education

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
High School Graduation Rate4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate for public high schools.	88.3%	92.5%
Bachelor's Degree or HigherShare of adults 25+ with a bachelor's degree or higher. Withheld where the margin of error is as large as the figure itself.	42.7%	40.3%
Graduate Degree RateShare of adults 25+ with a graduate or professional degree.	18.0%	13.1%
College Enrollment RateShare of the county's 18–24 year-olds currently enrolled in college or graduate school — reflects whether a campus sits in the county, not the educational attainment of the county overall. Withheld where the margin of error exceeds 20 points or a zero carries any margin.	41.2%	32.1%
3rd-Grade Reading ScoresAverage grade-level performance of 3rd graders on reading tests, aggregated from school districts. 3.0 means performing at grade level; higher means ahead of it.	3.0 grade level	3.0 grade level
3rd-Grade Math ScoresAverage grade-level performance of 3rd graders on math tests, aggregated from school districts. 3.0 means performing at grade level; higher means ahead of it.	2.9 grade level	3.0 grade level
K-12 Education IndexComposite 0–100 score of two K-12 indicators, graduation rate and child poverty, shown only where both are published. Shown for context only; the graduation rate it is built from already scores on its own.	75/100	81/100
Higher Education IndexComposite 0–100 score of higher education attainment and access (higher is better), shown only where at least two of its three inputs are published. Shown for context only — degree attainment and college enrollment already score individually.	63/100	51/100

Community Size

Reading	Cook County	Polk County
PopulationTotal resident population. Shown to three figures — 1.58M means 1,580,000-odd people; counties under 10,000 show the exact count.	5.18M	503K

Where these numbers come from

Each reading is the published figure, not an estimate. A dash means the source did not publish one for that county, and a dash never wins a row.

US Census ACS 5-year · updated yearly
Derived from Census ACS 5-year (homeValue ÷ income)
Derived from Census ACS 5-year ((rent × 12) ÷ income)
US Census ACS 5-year (B25103) · updated yearly
Derived from Census ACS 5-year (propertyTax ÷ homeValue)
US Census ACS 5-year (B25132) · updated yearly
US Census ACS 5-year (B25133) · updated yearly
US Census ACS 5-year (B25134) · updated yearly
Census ACS baseline · BLS LAUS latest monthly for pinned counties
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · CDC data
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF)
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · BRFSS
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · Census SAHIE
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · CDC
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · Census SAIPE
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · Census ACS
Derived from County Health Rankings 2025
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · CDC NCHS
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · Feeding America
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · DOL + Census SAIPE
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · HRSA + state licensing
FEMA National Risk Index 2023
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · NCES EDFacts
County Health Rankings 2025 (CHR/RWJF) · Stanford Education Data Archive
Derived from US Census ACS 5-year
US Census ACS 5-year (DP02) · updated yearly
US Census ACS 5-year (S1401) · updated yearly
EPA AQS Annual AQI by County 2023

Every reading for Cook County, IL Every reading for Polk County, IA Compare Cook County with another county