Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Illinois? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Springfield, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Illinois suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Prairie State:
- Western Springs (Photos)
- Deerfield (Photos)
- Northbrook (Photos)
- Winnetka (Photos)
- Wilmette (Photos)
- Buffalo Grove (Photos)
- Hinsdale (Photos)
- Lake Forest (Photos)
- Winfield (Photos)
- Northfield (Photos)
Western Springs is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Illinois.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Illinois, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Illinois and the best places to raise a family in Illinois.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in Illinois anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in Illinois, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Prairie State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Illinois, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in Illinois across a number of criteria from one to 193, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Illinois”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Illinois
Read on to see why Western Springs is the ‘burb with the most, while Riverdale is probably not the best place to live in Illinois.
1. Western Springs
Population: 13,133
Median Income: $147,361
Median Home Price: $530,800
Western Springs is located 11 miles west of Chicago.
2. Deerfield
Population: 18,686
Median Income: $143,729
Median Home Price: $508,800
Deerfield is located 24 miles north of Chicago.
3. Northbrook
Population: 33,538
Median Income: $115,243
Median Home Price: $519,300
Northbrook is located 21 miles north of Chicago.
4. Winnetka
Population: 12,437
Median Income: $207,857
Median Home Price: $989,600
Winnetka is located 18 miles north of Chicago.
5. Wilmette
Population: 27,367
Median Income: $138,651
Median Home Price: $636,900
Wilmette is located 16 miles north of Chicago.
6. Buffalo Grove
Population: 41,554
Median Income: $101,376
Median Home Price: $299,600
Buffalo Grove is located 26 miles north of Chicago.
7. Hinsdale
Population: 17,438
Median Income: $173,558
Median Home Price: $859,400
Hinsdale is located 12 miles west of Chicago.
8. Lake Forest
Population: 18,881
Median Income: $162,117
Median Home Price: $831,800
Lake Forest is located 29 miles north of Chicago.
9. Winfield
Population: 9,543
Median Income: $96,849
Median Home Price: $292,700
Winfield is located 10 miles east of Aurora.
10. Northfield
Population: 5,374
Median Income: $125,636
Median Home Price: $597,900
Northfield is located 18 miles north of Chicago.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Illinois
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Illinois according to the data:
- Riverdale
- Robbins
- Harvey
For more Illinois reading, check out:
- 10 Most Ghetto Cities In Illinois
- 10 Worst Places To Live In Illinois
- 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Illinois