The 10 Best Chicago Suburbs To Live In For 2026

The 10 Best Chicago Suburbs To Live For 2026

Western Springs is always mentioned as one of the best suburbs in the Chicago area. We’ll tell you the good about “Awesome Western Springs.”

Everyone here is rich; families average $230,255 a year, which is the 8th highest in the Chicago region. And only 3.09% are out of work. Homes average more than $863,782 each.

Review Of Western Springs by HomeSnacks User

Their is no crime in that town and the neighborhood is nice. Their are a lot of things to do in that town and have a nice ice cream shop called Oberweis Dairy. Their are also Metra trains their too.

Spring Rock Park is a nice park with baseball fields and a hockey rink. Oberweis Dairy has good ice cream.

Kenilworth is the second best ‘burb we looked at near Chicago for 2026.

It ranks 2nd for incomes in the area and only 1.12% of residents lack insurance, good for 9th best.

Here in Riverside, it’s really safe, and residents are just about as rich as you’ll see in the Chicago metro area.

The bad side? Schools are more crowded, and the cost of living puts a large part of the city out of reach for most families.

But price is based on demand and a lot of people want to live in Riverside.

Wilmette ranks as the 4th best suburb of Chicago for 2026.

You won’t find many better places to raise your kids in the region than in Wilmette and the schools are some of the best around.

Review Of Wilmette by HomeSnacks User

Another thing, consider why these areas are like they are. My family moved to Wilmette for the well known education system.

Coming in as the fifth best is Winnetka.

Winnetka gets kudos for having the 2nd most expensive homes in the Chicago area, where houses sell for an average of $1,818,304. However, the cost of living here is among the highest in the area.

Hinsdale is proud of its 6th place finish on this list. And here’s why.

Most residents have great jobs and the unemployment rate sits at 3.23%.

According to online reports, Hinsdale is quickly becoming one of the more affluent suburbs in the Chicago area, meaning you need to get in soon.

The 7th best suburb on our list goes to La Grange.

La Grange schools are some of the best in the region, and crime is really low. The cost of living makes it a lot more desirable for many families, especially first-time home buyers.

And, it’s only 10.1 miles to downtown, which is a good thing.

Deerfield is growing quickly, and for a good reason. Crime is far below average, and most residents are gainfully employed. Even the cost of living is reasonable.

A solid 1.02% of people lack insurance, good for 8th in the area.

Is ‘Everything Better In Glencoe?’

Almost.

It placed 9th on our list thanks to the fact that it’s really expensive to live here, but the schools are great, so you get what you pay for in that regard.

Review Of Glencoe by HomeSnacks User

I am from Glencoe and I do NOT appreciate being called the snobbiest town in Illinois, thank you very much. I would also say that nobody else who lives here likes it either. Yes, we are a wealthy town, but there is a fine fine line between s****y and wealthy.

Plus, since the houses get more expensive as they get closer to the lake and Glencoe is right on the lake, the houses will obviously be expensive!!!! That comment that you said about the art galleries and theatres, that’s just because we all like performing arts!!

And rounding out the top ten for 2026 is Long Grove.

This city is far above average in every category, and the best part? It’s far more affordable than the other cities listed above. So, you get a big bang for your buck here.

Methodology: How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Chicago for 2026

Figuring out the best suburbs around Chicago was simple. We used Saturday Night Science to find things people like about living in the suburbs and then locate the suburbs with those things.

We analyzed the newest American Community Survey data for 2020-2024 to research each suburb. We decided upon the following criteria:

• Low unemployment rate
• High median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college-educated people
• Low poverty
• High rate of insured families

We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Chicago.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 166 suburbs to evaluate around Chicago.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 166 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.

Finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index, the “Best Suburb near Chicago.” We’re lookin’ at you, Western Springs.

This result may differ from our state-wide data as we did not include commute times and crime for this analysis to allow for a more extensive selection of suburbs.

We updated the data for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best Chicago suburbs. Skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.