Mercer County, Illinois: commercial real estate data.

Mercer County

How many people live in Mercer County

• Population, American Community Survey 2020-202415,495
• Households6,565
• Average household size2.36
• Median household income$74,182
• Median age44.7
• Median gross rent$786 per month
• Median owner-occupied home value$146,700
• Home value to household income2.0 times
• Annual rent as a share of median income12.7 percent
• Adults 25 and over with a bachelor degree or higher20.9 percent
• Adults 25 and over with a graduate degree7.1 percent
• Adults 25 and over11,123
• Population under 183,230
• Share under 1820.8 percent
• Population 65 and over3,389
• Share 65 and over21.9 percent
• Working age population, 18 to 648,876
• Civilian labor force7,648
• Unemployment rate3.2 percent
• Labor force participation, adults 18 and over62.4 percent
• Rank by population among Illinois counties69th of 102
• Rank by population among US county-equivalents, Puerto Rico included2126th of 3,222

Mercer County is the 69th largest of 102 Illinois counties by population. A median home costs 2.0 times median household income, which is affordable by national standards. Residents 65 and over outnumber those under 18, at 21.9 percent against 20.8 percent, which points demand at health care, services and single story product rather than schools.

US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024 5-year.

Mercer County

Where are people moving to Mercer County from?

• Tax returns filed by households arriving378
• People arriving, from those returns687
• Tax returns filed by households leaving375
• Net household movement3
• Adjusted gross income arriving$20.3 m
• Net adjusted gross income movement$-4.1 m
• Average income of an arriving household$53,796
• Average income of a leaving household$65,056
• Largest single originRock Island County (119 households)
• Largest single destinationRock Island County (116 households)

Households arriving report $11,260 less average income than households leaving, which drains spending power even where headcount holds up. The largest single source of arrivals is Rock Island County, which is the catchment a retail or multifamily study should look at first.

US Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income county migration flows, 2021 to 2022 filing years.

Mercer County

Employment by industry in Mercer County

• Covered employment, annual average2,968
• Establishments reporting306
• Average annual pay$43,706
• Average weekly wage$840
• Manufacturing, employment422
• Manufacturing, average annual pay$63,787
• Retail trade, employment347
• Retail trade, average annual pay$32,879
• Accommodation and food services, employment241
• Accommodation and food services, average annual pay$16,100
• Wholesale trade, employment198
• Wholesale trade, average annual pay$65,772
• Arts, entertainment and recreation, employment108
• Finance and insurance, employment101

Manufacturing is the largest private sector at 422 jobs, 14.2 percent of covered employment.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2024 annual averages.

Mercer County

Building permits in Mercer County

• Housing units authorized by permit, 202416
• Declared construction value permitted$4.3 m
• Single family units authorized16
• Multifamily units authorized0
• Multifamily share of units0.0 percent
• Average declared value per unit$269,183
• Units authorized per 1,000 households2.4

Single-family homes are 100.0 percent of units authorized, so the pipeline is predominantly single-family.

US Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, 2024 annual.

Mercer County

SBA loan default and charge-off rates in Mercer County

Do SBA loans in Mercer County get paid back?

• Loans with a final outcome recorded2
• Paid in full1
• Charged off1
• Status: Charged off1
• Status: Paid in full1
• Status: Exempt from disclosure2

Only 2 loans have reached a final outcome, fewer than the 30 a charge-off rate needs, so no rate is published.

Compare against the national and state SBA charge-off rates, computed the same way over resolved loans only.

US Small Business Administration, 7(a) FOIA release, FY2020 to FY2026 year to date, as of 2026-06-30.

Mercer County

How large is Mercer County?

• Land area561 sq mi
• Rank by land area among Illinois counties45th of 102
• Width, east to west35.4 mi
• Height, north to south18.8 mi
• Geographies sharing a boundary8
• Residents per square mile of land28
• Establishments per square mile0.46

US Census Bureau county boundary geometry, TIGER, adjacency computed from shared boundary vertices, TIGER county boundaries. US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024 5-year. US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, 2023.

Feasibility studies

When a Mercer County site needs a document a lender will accept.

The same data layer behind this page is the one the studies are written from. A study for a Mercer County site starts with the figures you are reading, carrying the same source and period into the credit file.

• Population, American Community Survey 2020-202415,495
• Households6,565
• Average household size2.36
• Median household income$74,182
• Median age44.7

How a feasibility study works →

Mercer County

Cities and places in Mercer.

18 Census places lie wholly or partly in Mercer County. 16 carry enough published place level data for a page of their own and are linked. The rest are named here and not linked, because the American Community Survey and the SBA record between them do not carry enough about them to write an honest page. A place existing is itself worth knowing, so nothing in the county is left out.

A further 1 of the county's 4 SBA 7(a) approvals are to borrowers in cities that match no Census place in Mercer County, the largest being New Windsor (1). Those are postal cities, unincorporated areas and cities outside the county, so no place row claims them; they are counted in the county total above.