McLean County, Illinois: Realigning Affluent Suburb county. In 2024, voted D+5%. Republican peak: R+40 in 1920.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+5MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Realigning Affluent SuburbAkashic typology
- Population
- 171,5562024 5-year
- Median household income
- $79,9052024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 78.0%2024 5-year
- Black
- 8.5%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 6.4%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+12 in 1936MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+40 in 1920MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Leelanau County, MI · similarity 0.97
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of McLean CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for McLean 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 | −6.5% |
| 1896 | −21.8% |
| 1900 | −17.1% |
| 1904 | −30.9% |
| 1908 | −18.5% |
| 1912 | +4.8% |
| 1916 | −11.7% |
| 1920 | −40.2% |
| 1924 | −32.9% |
| 1928 | −31.6% |
| 1932 | +11.4% |
| 1936 | +12.0% |
| 1940 | −9.6% |
| 1944 | −16.0% |
| 1948 | −17.5% |
| 1952 | −29.6% |
| 1956 | −35.2% |
| 1960 | −27.8% |
| 1964 | +1.1% |
| 1968 | −25.3% |
| 1972 | −35.3% |
| 1976 | −25.9% |
| 1980 | −33.5% |
| 1984 | −33.8% |
| 1988 | −24.1% |
| 1992 | −4.4% |
| 1996 | −7.0% |
| 2000 | −14.9% |
| 2004 | −15.9% |
| 2008 | +1.2% |
| 2012 | −11.0% |
| 2016 | −1.3% |
| 2020 | +3.9% |
| 2024 | +4.9% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 44,495 | 40,290 | 86,522 | ||
| D | 43,933 | 40,502 | 87,387 | ||
| R | 36,196 | 37,237 | 81,324 | ||
| R | 31,883 | 39,947 | 73,469 | ||
| D | 37,689 | 36,767 | 75,750 | ||
| R | 29,877 | 41,276 | 71,620 | ||
| R | 24,936 | 34,008 | 60,898 | ||
| R | 22,708 | 26,428 | 53,435 | ||
| R | 23,090 | 25,726 | 59,285 | ||
| R | 18,659 | 30,572 | 49,511 | ||
| R | 15,880 | 32,221 | 48,349 | ||
| R | 13,587 | 30,096 | 49,232 | ||
| R | 16,601 | 28,493 | 45,879 | ||
| R | 14,824 | 31,060 | 45,955 | ||
| R | 12,779 | 22,284 | 37,630 | ||
| D | 19,550 | 19,120 | 38,670 | ||
| R | 13,971 | 24,758 | 38,761 | ||
| R | 12,332 | 25,758 | 38,111 | ||
| R | 13,296 | 24,494 | 37,826 | ||
| R | 12,904 | 18,430 | 31,517 | ||
| R | 14,011 | 19,366 | 33,562 | ||
| R | 18,024 | 21,865 | 40,166 | ||
| D | 21,508 | 16,826 | 39,132 | ||
| D | 19,535 | 15,450 | 35,871 | ||
| R | 10,742 | 20,780 | 31,789 | ||
| R | 6,826 | 16,550 | 29,582 | ||
| R | 6,411 | 16,680 | 25,555 | ||
| R | 11,699 | 14,988 | 28,153 | ||
| D | 5,356 | 4,624 | 15,294 | ||
| R | 5,982 | 8,953 | 16,023 | ||
| R | 4,149 | 8,772 | 14,955 | ||
| R | 6,613 | 9,487 | 16,818 | ||
| R | 6,328 | 9,964 | 16,712 | ||
| R | 6,487 | 7,445 | 14,764 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
25.6%
Irish
14.4%
English
13.1%
American
4.1%
Italian
3.7%
Polish
3.3%
Scottish
1.7%
African American
6.8%
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: 34.3 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
$79,905
McLean County ranks in the top 25% of US counties.
McLean County$79,905
Illinois$83,390
United States$80,734
McLean County ranks in the top 25% 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
12.9%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 189.4%
Working age (18–64)14.2%
Seniors (65+)9.7%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
90.3%
speak English only
Spanish3.7%
Asian & Pacific Islander2.8%
Other Indo-European2.7%
Other languages0.5%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 55.9% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
McLean County leans modestly Democratic at the presidential level, a shift driven partly by the student and professional population clustered around Bloomington-Normal, even as surrounding rural areas trend in the opposite direction.
Once reliably Republican — a margin of forty points in 1920 at its widest — McLean County has trended Democratic. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved one point toward the Democratic candidate; the 2024 margin was five points.
A median household income of $79,905 — among the higher at this geographic scale — and a population of 171,556 describe the county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Leelanau County and Kent 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.
McLean County, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/17113/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More realigning affluent suburb counties
Frequently asked questions
How did McLean County, Illinois vote in 2024?
In 2024, McLean County, Illinois voted Democratic by 4.9 points (D+5), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 86,522 votes cast, 44,495 went Democratic and 40,290 went Republican.
What is McLean County, Illinois's political typology?
Akashic places McLean County, Illinois in the "Realigning Affluent Suburb" typology — College-educated, affluent suburbs — the one bloc moving toward the Democratic Party. 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 27 times, and other 0 times.
When did McLean County, Illinois last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which McLean County, Illinois voted Republican was 2016.
How many people live in McLean County, Illinois?
McLean County, Illinois has a population of 171,556 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in McLean County, Illinois?
Median household income in McLean County, Illinois is $79,905 — below the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of McLean County, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in McLean County, Illinois from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 7 went Democratic and 27 went Republican. The county's typology — "Realigning Affluent Suburb" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.