householder with no husband present, and 42.3% were non-families. 39.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.08. The distribution of the population by age was 30.4% under 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 22.0% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 79.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 70.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $21,607, and the median income for a family was $28,242. Males had a median income of $28,798 versus $18,125 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,220. About 27.1% of families and 33.5% of the population were living below the poverty line, including 47.0% of those under the age of 18 and 20.9% of those ages 65 and older. Education The city is served by Cairo Community Unit School District 1. Based on census estimates, the Cairo school district has the highest percentage in Illinois of children in poverty, 60.6%. This is the fifteenth highest percentage of any city in the United States. The district has one elementary school, Emerson Elementary School. Middle and high school students attend Cairo Junior/Senior High School. Bennett Elementary School closed in 2010. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville formerly operated St. Joseph Grade School. It was previously K-12, but by 2001 it had only elementary grades. Enrollment was over 130 during the 1976-1977 school year. This figure dropped to 63 in 2000, and then 25, including 7 Catholic students, in the 2002-2003 school year. The school closed in 2003. Shawnee Community College opened an extension center in Cairo in January 2019. Government Cairo is in Illinois's 12th congressional district and is represented in Congress by Republican Mike Bost. In 2020, 42.60 percent of Alexander County voters cast ballots for Democratic candidate and the 46th President Joe Biden. Transportation Amtrak's Chicago–New Orleans City of New Orleans served Cairo until October 25, 1987; since then, its closest stops to Cairo are Carbondale, Illinois, to the north, and Fulton, Kentucky, to the south. Major highways include: Cairo's location on a spit of land that lies between the Mississippi and Ohio