Lee County, Illinois: Farm Belt county. In 2024, voted R+22%. Republican peak: R+61 in 1920.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+22MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Farm BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 33,8692024 5-year
- Median household income
- $70,2922024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 85.8%2024 5-year
- Black
- 5.3%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 7.6%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+8 in 1912MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+61 in 1920MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Pike County, PA · similarity 0.99
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Lee CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Lee 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 | −11.9% |
| 1896 | −31.4% |
| 1900 | −30.2% |
| 1904 | −45.6% |
| 1908 | −31.5% |
| 1912 | +8.0% |
| 1916 | −31.2% |
| 1920 | −61.2% |
| 1924 | −49.7% |
| 1928 | −34.6% |
| 1932 | −4.1% |
| 1936 | −12.7% |
| 1940 | −30.2% |
| 1944 | −35.9% |
| 1948 | −34.5% |
| 1952 | −43.5% |
| 1956 | −44.0% |
| 1960 | −29.5% |
| 1964 | −7.2% |
| 1968 | −31.9% |
| 1972 | −37.8% |
| 1976 | −17.2% |
| 1980 | −53.1% |
| 1984 | −47.9% |
| 1988 | −31.6% |
| 1992 | −7.3% |
| 1996 | −5.5% |
| 2000 | −13.4% |
| 2004 | −18.2% |
| 2008 | −3.0% |
| 2012 | −7.3% |
| 2016 | −19.9% |
| 2020 | −19.6% |
| 2024 | −22.2% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 6,105 | 9,680 | 16,113 | ||
| R | 6,407 | 9,630 | 16,440 | ||
| R | 5,528 | 8,612 | 15,489 | ||
| R | 6,937 | 8,059 | 15,348 | ||
| R | 7,765 | 8,258 | 16,318 | ||
| R | 6,416 | 9,307 | 15,876 | ||
| R | 6,111 | 8,069 | 14,620 | ||
| R | 5,895 | 6,677 | 14,182 | ||
| R | 5,530 | 6,652 | 15,417 | ||
| R | 4,608 | 8,903 | 13,596 | ||
| R | 3,919 | 11,178 | 15,155 | ||
| R | 3,170 | 11,373 | 15,438 | ||
| R | 6,076 | 8,674 | 15,076 | ||
| R | 4,788 | 10,636 | 15,489 | ||
| R | 4,727 | 9,598 | 15,255 | ||
| R | 7,315 | 8,445 | 15,760 | ||
| R | 5,896 | 10,835 | 16,739 | ||
| R | 4,531 | 11,653 | 16,189 | ||
| R | 4,700 | 11,941 | 16,651 | ||
| R | 4,368 | 9,001 | 13,441 | ||
| R | 4,899 | 10,397 | 15,317 | ||
| R | 6,005 | 11,228 | 17,285 | ||
| R | 6,845 | 8,914 | 16,232 | ||
| R | 7,182 | 7,802 | 15,161 | ||
| R | 4,476 | 9,238 | 13,760 | ||
| R | 2,367 | 8,363 | 12,057 | ||
| R | 1,715 | 7,615 | 9,646 | ||
| R | 4,087 | 7,985 | 12,479 | ||
| O | 1,995 | 1,482 | 6,436 | ||
| R | 2,144 | 4,255 | 6,701 | ||
| R | 1,604 | 4,634 | 6,642 | ||
| R | 2,528 | 4,820 | 7,585 | ||
| R | 2,469 | 4,797 | 7,405 | ||
| R | 2,740 | 3,513 | 6,477 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
28.2%
Irish
15.3%
English
11.4%
Polish
4.1%
American
3.8%
Italian
3.2%
French
2.2%
African American
4.2%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
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: 43.1 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
$70,292
Lee County ranks near the middle of US counties.
Lee County$70,292
Illinois$83,390
United States$80,734
Lee County ranks near the middle 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
11.8%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 1812.0%
Working age (18–64)11.6%
Seniors (65+)12.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
95.4%
speak English only
Spanish2.8%
Other Indo-European1.0%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.6%
Other languages0.2%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 54.2% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Lee County sits in the Illinois Rock River corridor, where a shrinking agricultural workforce and a long slide in Democratic performance have pushed its presidential margins from competitive to reliably double-digit Republican territory since the early 2000s.
The Republican margin here reached sixty-one points in 1920. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved three points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was twenty-two points.
A population of 33,869, a 86% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $70,292 describe an agricultural county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Pike County and Mecklenburg 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.
Lee County, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/17103/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
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Frequently asked questions
How did Lee County, Illinois vote in 2024?
In 2024, Lee County, Illinois voted Republican by 22.2 points (R+22), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 16,113 votes cast, 6,105 went Democratic and 9,680 went Republican.
What is Lee County, Illinois's political typology?
Akashic places Lee County, Illinois in the "Farm Belt" typology — Rural Plains and Midwest farm counties — Republican, with modest recent movement. 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 0 times, Republican 33 times, and other 1 times.
How many people live in Lee County, Illinois?
Lee County, Illinois has a population of 33,869 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Lee County, Illinois?
Median household income in Lee County, Illinois is $70,292 — below the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Lee County, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Lee County, Illinois from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 0 went Democratic and 33 went Republican. The county's typology — "Farm Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.