100 Safest — and Not-So-Safe — Cities in Illinois: Study

If you live in the Chicago area and feel safe when you're out and about, you're likely a resident of a suburban community with a high median household income, low poverty level and high home-ownership rate, according to a statistical analysis of crime data by a personal finance website.

Using the findings from that study, ValuePenguin ranked 291 Illinois cities to find the safest — and least safest — in the state.

So what communities made ValuePenguin's list? The top five safest places in Illinois are:

1. Hawthorn Woods
2. Clarendon Hills
3. Campton Hills
4. Western Springs
5. Hampshire

"These cities have an average crime score of 143, which is 88% lower than their typical peer in the state," the website stated when explaining why these cities made the top five cut. "With some of its lowest total violent crime rates, these five are the safest places in the state."

Learn More: Go to ValuePenguin for Its Complete List of Safest Cities in Illinois

The site also evaluated communities in terms of population in order to compare the safety of cities that are relatively the same size as one another. Separating communities into three categories, researchers also created lists of the safest places in terms of size. Here's how that broke down:

• Safest small city (populations between 5,000 to 15,000): Hawthorn Hills, pop. 7,861
• Safest midsize city (populations between 15,000 and 30,000): Lake in the Hills, pop. 28,925
• Safest large city (populations of more than 30,000): Bartlet, pop. 41,784

The 291st safest city is East St. Louis in southern Illinois on the border with Missouri. In fact, Chicago ranked 285th overall. The following cities round out the bottom of ValuePenguin's list:

• East St. Louis (291st)
• Rockford (290th)
• Mount Vernon (289th)
• Springfield (288th)
• Danville (287th)

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To come up with its rankings, ValuePenguin used property crime and violent crime data culled from 2014 FBI statistics, the most recent stats available. This is how the website then broke down that data:

"We standardized the data to reflect violent and property crimes per 100,000, to account for population. Then, we aggregated a “crime score” by weighting violent crime at 80% and property crime at 20%. … Then we adjusted the crime score for population size, giving more slack to larger cities. Finally, we ranked the cities based on their crime scores."

The following lists are a look at ValuePenguin's top 100 cities—the safest—and the site's bottom 100—the least safe:

Safest

1. Hawthorn Woods
2. Clarendon Hills
3. Campton Hills
4. Western Springs
5. Hampshire
6. Winfield
7. Pinckneyville
8. Pingree Grove
9. Gilberts
10. Lindenhurst
11. Channahon
12. Mascoutah
13. Orland Hills
14. Highwood
15. Mount Zion
16. La Grange Park
17. Lake in the Hills
18. Bartlett
19. Homer Glen
20. Lake Forest
21. Willow Springs
22. Lakemoor
23. Winnetka
24. Lincolnshire
25. Buffalo Grove
26. Deerfield
27. Spring Grove
28. Frankfort
29. Huntley
30. Geneva
31. Island Lake
32. Manhattan
33. Wheaton
34. Burr Ridge
35. Barrington
36. Lake Villa
37. Mahomet
38. Charleston
39. Plano
40. Hinsdale
41. Shorewood
42. Warrenville
43. Westchester
44. Cary
45. Round Lake Park
46. Glenview
47. Mundelein
48. Glencoe
49. Carterville
50. Yorkville
51. Genoa
52. Plainfield
53. Winthrop Harbor
54. Morton
55. Wilmington
56. Lemont
57. Northbrook
58. Maryville
59. La Grange
60. Mokena
61. Palos Hills
62. Glen Carbon
63. Roselle
64. Minooka
65. Chatham
66. Palatine
67. Washington
68. Columbia
69. Wood Dale
70. Palos Heights
71. Roscoe
72. Rolling Meadows
73. Round Lake
74. Itasca
75. Mount Prospect
76. Arlington Heights
77. Hanover Park
78. Spring Valley
79. Chester
80. Elmhurst
81. Lockport
82. River Grove
83. Park Ridge
84. Highland Park
85. Harvard
86. Stickney
87. Prospect Heights
88. Westmont
89. Marengo
90. Wilmette
91. Carol Stream
92. Worth
93. Willowbrook
94. Flossmoor
95. Libertyville
96. Troy
97. Sycamore
98. Coal City
99. Lyons
100. South Elgin

Least Safe

1. East St. Louis
2. Rockford
3. Mount Vernon
4. Springfield
5. Danville
6. Harvey
7. Chicago
8. Kankakee
9. Peoria
10. Centralia
11. Sauk Village
12. Riverdale
13. North Riverside
14. Calumet City
15. Alton
16. Champaign
17. Maywood
18. Zion
19. Rantoul
20. Metropolis
21. Chicago Heights
22. Matteson
23. Carbondale
24. Broadview
25. Quincy
26. Decatur
27. Steger
28. Waukegan
29. Moline
30. Hazel Crest
31. Urbana
32. Wood River
33. Galesburg
34. Gurnee
35. Oak Brook
36. Hoopeston
37. Forest Park
38. Lincoln
39. Country Club Hills
40. Effingham
41. Bellwood
42. De Kalb
43. Bradley
44. Chicago Ridge
45. Fairview Heights
46. Sterling
47. Cahokia
48. Kewanee
49. Bloomington
50. Bartonville
51. Cicero
52. Olney
53. Oak Park
54. East Peoria
55. Rock Island
56. Loves Park
57. Pontiac
58. Streator
59. Joliet
60. Silvis
61. Collinsville
62. Evanston
63. Summit
64. Beardstown
65. Richton Park
66. Alsip
67. Homewood
68. East Alton
69. Harrisburg
70. Peoria Heights
71. East Moline
72. Lincolnwood
73. Watseka
74. Skokie
75. Fairfield
76. Paris
77. Freeport
78. Evergreen Park
79. Norridge
80. Vandalia
81. Carlinville
82. Schaumburg
83. Jacksonville
84. Berwyn
85. Aurora
86. Pekin
87. Riverside
88. Herrin
89. Monmouth
90. Jerseyville
91. Mattoon
92. Elgin
93. Park Forest
94. Milan
95. Round Lake Beach
96. Mount Carmel
97. Ottawa
98. Normal
99. South Holland
100. Rock Falls

Photo: Western Springs (Image via MrHarman | Wikimedia Commons)

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