Champaign is also a major college town with a large number of people who are 18 years or older and attending college. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in Champaign have a strong influence on the local culture and entertainment scene, which may seem dormant by comparison in the summer months when much of the student population is away. In the fall, the return of students has a reinvigorating effect on the community. Because colleges are lasting institutions, they have a stabilizing effect on the economy by providing direct local benefits such as jobs for faculty and staff and spending by students. Champaign’s economy is one such example of this.
Not only is Champaign a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That’s because Champaign is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Champaign a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Champaign spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 16.67 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
Like elsewhere in America, most people in Champaign use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Champaign‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the bus. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.
Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Champaign, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Champaign is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 51.76% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Champaign in 2022 was $34,879, which is middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $139,516 for a family of four. However, Champaign contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Champaign is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Champaign home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Champaign residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Champaign include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Polish.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Champaign's cultural character, accounting for 17.01% of the city’s population.
The most common language spoken in Champaign is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.
