Des Plaines is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 58,594 people and 21 associated neighborhoods, Des Plaines is the 20th largest community in Illinois.

Des Plaines real estate is some of the most expensive in Illinois, although Des Plaines house values don't compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.

Also of interest is that Des Plaines has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

A relatively large number of people in Des Plaines telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 10.04% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

In Des Plaines, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.53 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.

For the size of the city, public transportation in Des Plaines is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the train. For Des Plaines, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

The citizens of Des Plaines are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 38.10% of adults in Des Plaines have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Des Plaines in 2022 was $42,057, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $168,228 for a family of four. However, Des Plaines contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Des Plaines is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Des Plaines home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Des Plaines residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Des Plaines also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.72% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Des Plaines include Polish, German, Irish, Italian, and English.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Des Plaines's cultural character, accounting for 30.78% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in Des Plaines is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.