Lake County, Illinois: New American county. In 2024, voted D+21%. Republican peak: R+70 in 1920.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+21MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- New AmericanAkashic typology
- Population
- 714,2232024 5-year
- Median household income
- $110,4162024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 61.2%2024 5-year
- Black
- 6.7%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 24.9%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+24 in 2020MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+70 in 1920MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Ventura County, CA · similarity 0.97
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Lake CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Lake County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | −18.9% |
| 1896 | −46.9% |
| 1900 | −38.2% |
| 1904 | −58.6% |
| 1908 | −44.0% |
| 1912 | +2.5% |
| 1916 | −38.7% |
| 1920 | −70.1% |
| 1924 | −67.2% |
| 1928 | −36.8% |
| 1932 | −6.1% |
| 1936 | −5.6% |
| 1940 | −20.9% |
| 1944 | −16.7% |
| 1948 | −27.7% |
| 1952 | −25.8% |
| 1956 | −34.8% |
| 1960 | −18.2% |
| 1964 | +3.2% |
| 1968 | −21.0% |
| 1972 | −31.9% |
| 1976 | −22.6% |
| 1980 | −29.2% |
| 1984 | −37.2% |
| 1988 | −27.7% |
| 1992 | −7.7% |
| 1996 | +0.1% |
| 2000 | −2.4% |
| 2004 | −1.7% |
| 2008 | +19.6% |
| 2012 | +8.3% |
| 2016 | +20.2% |
| 2020 | +24.0% |
| 2024 | +20.7% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 184,642 | 120,402 | 310,913 | ||
| D | 204,032 | 123,594 | 335,675 | ||
| D | 171,095 | 109,767 | 303,520 | ||
| D | 153,757 | 129,764 | 287,493 | ||
| D | 177,242 | 118,545 | 299,105 | ||
| R | 134,352 | 139,081 | 275,295 | ||
| R | 115,058 | 120,988 | 242,164 | ||
| D | 93,315 | 93,149 | 204,764 | ||
| R | 81,693 | 99,000 | 223,987 | ||
| R | 64,327 | 114,115 | 179,633 | ||
| R | 53,947 | 118,401 | 173,224 | ||
| R | 48,287 | 96,350 | 164,853 | ||
| R | 57,741 | 92,231 | 152,894 | ||
| R | 47,416 | 92,052 | 139,812 | ||
| R | 43,409 | 68,999 | 121,903 | ||
| D | 62,785 | 58,840 | 121,667 | ||
| R | 46,941 | 67,809 | 114,899 | ||
| R | 32,279 | 66,781 | 99,189 | ||
| R | 32,353 | 54,929 | 87,427 | ||
| R | 22,192 | 39,456 | 62,368 | ||
| R | 25,453 | 35,674 | 61,310 | ||
| R | 24,965 | 38,242 | 63,461 | ||
| R | 24,524 | 27,548 | 53,675 | ||
| R | 21,139 | 23,994 | 47,122 | ||
| R | 12,252 | 26,814 | 39,587 | ||
| R | 2,008 | 18,229 | 24,150 | ||
| R | 2,321 | 15,712 | 19,096 | ||
| R | 5,447 | 12,905 | 19,251 | ||
| O | 2,436 | 2,183 | 10,113 | ||
| R | 2,264 | 6,392 | 9,379 | ||
| R | 1,592 | 6,635 | 8,605 | ||
| R | 2,235 | 5,136 | 7,588 | ||
| R | 1,777 | 5,027 | 6,937 | ||
| R | 1,964 | 2,932 | 5,129 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
15.8%
Irish
10.0%
Polish
7.4%
English
6.4%
Italian
6.0%
American
3.3%
French
1.4%
African American
5.4%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 39.1 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$110,416
Lake County ranks in the top 0.5% of US counties.
Lake County$110,416
Illinois$83,390
United States$80,734
Lake County ranks in the top 0.5% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
8.3%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 1811.5%
Working age (18–64)7.2%
Seniors (65+)8.8%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
68.6%
speak English only
Spanish19.0%
Other Indo-European7.0%
Asian & Pacific Islander4.9%
Other languages0.6%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 48.8% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Once a reliably Republican suburban stronghold, Lake County has shifted markedly leftward over the past decade as college-educated voters in communities like Waukegan and Lake Forest realigned, delivering a 20-point Democratic margin in 2024.
Lake County has leaned Democratic in recent presidential elections, reaching a Democratic margin of twenty-four points in 2020. Between 2020 and 2024 it moved three points toward the Republican candidate — part of the sharpest rightward shift recorded among any group of places in the country.
Its demographics describe the shift: a 61% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $110,416, and a population of 714,223. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Ventura County and Prince William County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Lake County, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/17097/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
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Frequently asked questions
How did Lake County, Illinois vote in 2024?
In 2024, Lake County, Illinois voted Democratic by 20.7 points (D+21), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 310,913 votes cast, 184,642 went Democratic and 120,402 went Republican.
What is Lake County, Illinois's political typology?
Akashic places Lake County, Illinois in the "New American" typology — Communities where a large share of households speak a language other than English — multilingual, Democratic-leaning overall, yet the hardest-swinging bloc toward the Republican Party in 2024. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 7 times, Republican 26 times, and other 1 times.
When did Lake County, Illinois last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Lake County, Illinois voted Republican was 2004.
How many people live in Lake County, Illinois?
Lake County, Illinois has a population of 714,223 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Lake County, Illinois?
Median household income in Lake County, Illinois is $110,416 — above the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Lake County, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Lake County, Illinois from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 7 went Democratic and 26 went Republican. The county's typology — "New American" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.