Oak Forest, Illinois
25 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Bremen Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60452. The Survey maps it on the Harvey quadrangle. 27,478 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 656 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresOak Forest fell from 27,962 to 27,478 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 27,962 | |
| 2020 | 27,478 | -484 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 25 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1892 USGS Calumet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Calumet quadrangle1:62500
- 1900 USGS Calumet quadrangle1:62500
- 1901 USGS Calumet quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1929 USGS Harvey quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1953 USGS Harvey quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Harvey quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1980 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Harvey quadrangle1:24000
- 1998 USGS Harvey quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
2 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Oak Forest in 2005, burning under an acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 July 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 18 May 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Oak Forest: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markham City Dept. of Public Works | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
24 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oak Forest in 24 storm reports between 2004 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 4 flood, 3 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | $30,000 | A tree was blown down onto a pickup truck, a boat and a garage. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | Tree limbs and power lines were blown down along 159th Street. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | Multiple reports of trees snapped or uprooted were received. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | A private weather station measured a wind gust to 68 mph. |
| August 2025 | Flash Flood | Oak Forest | - | Numerous reports of flooding were received from the vicinity of Tinley Park, Oak Forest, and Homewood. A viaduct along Dixie Hwy in Homewood was flooded and closed to traffic. Water had risen up to car bumpers near Harlem and 167th St in Tinley Park. A private weather station in Homewood recorded 3.1 inches of rain between approximately 12:30 PM and 4:30 PM CST. A trained spotter in Country Club Hills recorded 2.38 inches in a 90 minute period. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | A large tree was reported down along 167th St east of Central Ave in Oak Forest. |
| February 2024 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | A trained spotter reported ping pong ball sized hail near 155th St and Long Ave in Oak Forest. They noted the hail fell from 8:40 to 8:52 PM CST. |
| March 2024 | Flood | Oak Forest | - | Multiple public reports of minor street flooding in the Oak Forest, Midlothian and Blue Island areas were received via social media. Natalie Creek quickly rose to near flood stage in Midlothian. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | A photo showed a large tree that was blown down onto a fence. |
| July 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Oak Forest | - | A brief tornado with estimated peak winds of 85 mph touched down just north of 159th Street near Rob Roy Drive. In addition to tree damage, minor roof and fascia damage occurred to some homes, primarily confined to areas along Brookwood and Arroyo Drives. One home just west of Arroyo Drive suffered damage to siding, gutters, a vinyl fence and a broken window. The tornado ended near Terrace Drive and 158th Place. |
| September 2024 | Heavy Rain | Oak Forest | - | A private weather station measured almost 2 inches of rain in 30 minutes with a storm total of 2.37 inches. |
| March 2023 | Flood | Oak Forest | - | One foot of standing water was reported near the intersection of 159th St and Cicero Ave. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Oak Forest | - | Flooding caused 167th Street to be closed. Side roads were likely flooded as well. Rainfall of 3.06 inches was measured in Oak Forest. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | A 6 inch diameter tree was snapped. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oak Forest | - | Ten to fifteen inch diameter trees were blown down. |
| October 2007 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | Nickel size hail was reported at 167th and Cicero. |
| May 2007 | Flood | Oak Forest | - | Six inches of standing water reported at 159th Street and Cicero. |
| July 2007 | Flood | Oak Forest | - | Four to five inches of standing water at 167th and Cicero. |
| July 2007 | Flash Flood | Oak Forest | - | A viaduct was flooded west of Cicero Avenue on 159th Street. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | Cicero and Rt. 6 in Oak Forest. |
| February 2024 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Oak Forest | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlothian | 2.1 miles | 25 | |
| Goeselville | 2.6 miles | 24 | |
| Markham | 2.7 miles | 25 | |
| Country Club Hills | 2.7 miles | 25 | |
| Tinley Park | 3.0 miles | 24 | |
| University Park | 3.2 miles | 25 | |
| Hazel Crest | 3.4 miles | 25 | |
| Robbins | 3.6 miles | 25 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Oak Forest | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q578535 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 414759. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.











