Illinois City Crowned 'Best Small City' In The Entire State

By Logan DeLoye

November 9, 2023

Aerial View of the Chicago Suburb of Royal Oak in Summer
Photo: iStockphoto

Would you consider your small city one of the best places to live in Illinois?

Just because an area is small does not necessarily mean it is safer than a larger city. Wallet Hub analyzed data encompassing quality of life, economy, safety, education, and health standards in each state to determine which cities stood out from the rest. Cities with excellent scores in all categories topped the list of the best small cities across America.

According to the data, the best small city in Illinois is Glen Ellyn. Glen Ellyn is also ranked as one of the best small cities in the U.S.

Here's what Wallet Hub had to say about compiling the data to discover the best small cities across the country:

"In order to determine the best small cities in America, WalletHub compared 1,321 cities across five key dimensions: 1) Affordability, 2) Economic Health, 3) Education & Health, 4) Quality of Life and 5) Safety. For our sample, we selected cities with population sizes between 25,000 and 100,000 and considered only the “city proper” in each case, excluding cities in the surrounding metro area. Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample."

For a continued list of the best small cities nationwide, visit wallethub.com.

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