These Illinois Small Cities Are Among the Best in the Nation

For many families, the slower pace of a smaller city outweighs the benefits of a larger one.

Families looking for a small city to settle down are in luck–a study by WalletHub, a personal finance company, ranked the top small cities across the country. 

Illinois had a strong showing on the list, with 10 small cities in the top 10% nationwide.  

The study classified a small city as having a population between 25,000 and 100,000. Analysts looked at five livability factors to determine the rankings: affordability, economic  health, education and health, quality of life and safety. 

Which small cities in Illinois made the cut? 

Wallethub analyzed 1,318 small cities across the country and competition was steep. The top scoring small city in Illinois is Downer’s Grove, with a score in the top 1%. 

Other cities like Algonquin, Glen Ellyn and Carol Stream also scored highly. Here’s a list of the top small cities in the state in the top 10 percent. 

• 99th percentile: Downer’s Grove
• 98th percentile: Algonquin
• 97th percentile: Glen Ellyn 
• 96th percentile: Carol Stream
• 95th percentile: Wheaton
• 95th percentile: Park Ridge
• 94th percentile: Elmhurst
• 93rd percentile: Batavia
• 92nd percentile: Plainfield
• 92nd percentile: Lombard

How did Illinois’s small cities score? 

The analysis ranked 1,318 cities based on the most important factors for livability. Each small city was given a separate ranking for each of the five categories: affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life and safety. 

Here’s how Illinois’s top small cities scored in their individual rankings out of 1,318. 

Downer’s Grove 

• Affordability: 133
• Economic health: 150
• Education and health: 80
• Quality of life: 469
• Safety: 65

Algonquin

• Affordability: 11
• Economic health: 481
• Education and health: 308
• Quality of life: 715
• Safety: 125

Glen Ellyn

• Affordability: 92
• Economic health: 644
• Education and health: 74
• Quality of life: 601
• Safety: 20

Carol Stream

• Affordability: 243
• Economic health: 363
• Education and health: 105
• Quality of life: 1023
• Safety: 41

Wheaton

• Affordability: 262
• Economic health: 430
• Education and health: 70
• Quality of life: 499
• Safety: 42

Park Ridge

• Affordability: 88
• Economic health: 46
• Education and health: 457
• Quality of life: 690
• Safety: 266

Elmhurst

• Affordability: 53
• Economic health: 227
• Education and health: 371
• Quality of life: 486
• Safety: 265

Batavia

• Affordability: 59
• Economic health: 298
• Education and health: 138
• Quality of life: 951
• Safety: 68

Plainfield

• Affordability: 11
• Economic health: 979
• Education and health: 330
• Quality of life: 636
• Safety: 122

Lombard

• Affordability: 403
• Economic health: 564
• Education and health: 82
• Quality of life: 458
• Safety: 103

How the rankings were decided 

The five key factors–affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life and safety–were broken down using 45 metrics which were then weighed.

For example, in the safety category, WalletHub used data on the violent crime rate, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities per capita, property crime rate and more. 

The data come from a range of sources. Some of the metrics come from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while other information was gleaned from user-generated content from companies like Yelp.

For a full breakdown of the process used to create the rankings, visit WalletHub’s methodology section.

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