The 10 Best Chicago Suburbs To Live In For 2022

The 10 Best Chicago Suburbs To Live For 2022

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 $184,412 a year, which is the 9th highest in the Chicago region. And only 2.57% are out of work. Homes average more than $609,600 each.

Wilmette is the second best 'burb we looked at near Chicago for 2022.

It ranks 12th for incomes in the area and only 0.99% of residents lack insurance, good for 7th best.

Here in Glencoe, 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 Glencoe.

Winnetka ranks as the 4th best suburb of Chicago for 2022.

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

Coming in as the fifth best is Hinsdale.

Hinsdale gets kudos for having the 4th most expensive homes in the Chicago area, where houses sell for an average of $882,700. However, the cost of living here is among the highest in the area.

La Grange 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 2.92% which is 16th best in the area.

According to online reports, La Grange 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 Deerfield.

Deerfield 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 24.3 miles to downtown, which is a good thing.

River Forest 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 1.46% of people lack insurance, good for 14th in the area.

Is 'Everything Better In Winfield?'

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.

And rounding out the top ten for 2022 is Kenilworth.

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 2022

Figuring out the best suburbs around Chicago was pretty simple; we just needed to list several things that people like, and then find out which cities have the most of those things.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible:

• 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

Then we used the newest American Community Survey data for 2016-2020 to research each suburb.

FYI: 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.

And finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index the "Best Suburb near Chicago." We're lookin' at you, Western Springs. You can download the data here.

Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the best of the best. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.