These Are The 10 Best Cities For Hippies In Illinois

You might think that the whole hippie movement has faded away, but the truth is, there are plenty of hippies out there in Illinois.

While they aren’t necessarily in your face all the time with war protests and the next Woodstock isn’t being planned any time soon, we thought it would be fun to look at which cities in the Prairie State where the most hippies would live.

And, after crunching the data, you know what? It was pretty spot on, we have to say.

How do you decide where the most hippies live? By the number of yoga studios, organic markets, and most importantly, where the liberals live in droves.

Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where hippies might live in Illinois, and then put out a list.

So, put on your tie dye shirt and your sandals as you go through this list with us.

After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list of the 10 best cities for hippies in Illinois:

1. Northfield
2. Lincolnwood
3. Broadview
4. North Riverside (Photos)
5. Berkeley
6. Hillside (Photos)
7. Countryside
8. Riverside (Photos)
9. Stickney
10. Harwood Heights (Photos)

Read on below to see where your town ranked, young flower child.

And if you already knew these places were hippie heavens, check out the best places to live in Illinois or the safest places to live in Illinois.

How do you determine the most beatnik city in Illinois?

In order to rank the best cities for hippies in Illinois, we had to determine what criteria defines a hippie.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the Google Places API, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and Voter Registration data, this is the criteria we used:

• Number of yoga studios per capita
• Number of organic markets per capita
• Number of pet adoption centers per capita
• Number of vegan restaurants per capita
• Number of thrift stores per capita
• Each city’s liberal voting population

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a ~4.5 mile radius of a city’s center. The average city in America is about 18 square miles.

All of these results are listed in a per capita basis, meaning number of stores per person in a city. Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 339 in each category, where 1 was the most hippie.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a hippie index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the highest hippie index the ‘Best City for Hippies In Illinois.’ We’re lookin’ at you, Northfield.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in hippie central. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from hippiest to most square.

1. Northfield

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 4.5
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.88
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.31
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 2.25
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 5.06

2. Lincolnwood

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 4.5
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.79
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.34
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 3.0
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.58
Lincolnwood (formerly Tessville) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,590 at the 2010 census.

3. Broadview

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 3.52
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.26
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.13
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.51
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.27
Broadview is a village in Cook County, Illinois, 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Chicago. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,932.

4. North Riverside

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 4.18
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.01
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.72
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.15
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.18

5. Berkeley

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.34
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.77
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.72
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.15
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.6
Berkeley is a village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Incorporated in 1924, the population at the 2010 census was 5,209.

6. Hillside

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.95
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.85
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.22
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.1
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 2.44

7. Countryside

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 2.51
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.17
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.17
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.5
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 3.52
Countryside is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,895 at the 2010 census.

8. Riverside

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 2.92
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.79
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.56
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.79
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.37
Riverside is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population of the village was 8,875 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of Chicago, located roughly 9 miles (14 km) west of downtown Chicago and 2 miles (3 km) outside city limits.

9. Stickney

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.32
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.44
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.73
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.03
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 4.26

10. Harwood Heights

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.16
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.58
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.92
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.81
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 3.7

There You Have It — The Hippies Of Illinois

If you’re measuring the locations in Illinois where there are lots of liberals, and there are many options for vegan food, yoga and thrift stores, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious, here are the most square places in Illinois:

1. Sumner
2. West Frankfort
3. Decatur

For more Illinois reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Safest Places In Illinois
• These Are The 10 Dumbest Cities In Illinois
• These Are The 10 Most Ghetto Cities In Illinois

Detailed List Of The Hippiest Cities In Illinois