Oak Forest is a medium-sized city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 26,460 people and five associated neighborhoods, Oak Forest is the 77th largest community in Illinois.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.06% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

One downside of living in Oak Forest is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Oak Forest, the average commute to work is 32.62 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Oak Forest is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the train helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Oak Forest area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

The education level of Oak Forest citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 31.25% of adults in Oak Forest have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Oak Forest in 2022 was $41,453, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $165,812 for a family of four. However, Oak Forest contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Oak Forest is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Oak Forest home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Oak Forest residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Oak Forest also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.71% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Oak Forest include Irish, German, Polish, Italian, and English.

The most common language spoken in Oak Forest is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Arabic.