Chicago, IL
Population: 2,873,790
Compare Chicago to Top 10 Best Places
Financial
  City stats Best places average
Median family income
(per year)
$46,748 $76,893
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)
$33,559 $68,109
Sales tax 9.00% 6.55%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)
3.00% 6.46%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)
3.00% 2.74%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average for the state)
$2,006 $2,207
Job growth %
(2000-2005)
0.70% 10.97%
Housing
  City stats Best places average
Median home price $254,500 $259,566
Home price gain
(2004-2005)
10.70% 9.26%
Education
  City stats Best places average
Colleges, universities and
professional schools
51 8
Junior colleges and
technical institutes
14 0
Test scores reading
(% +/- state average)
-24.8% 13.3%
Test scores math
(% +/- state average)
-35.6% 16.9%
% students attending
public/private schools
84.9/15.10 88.4/11.59
Quality of life
  City stats Best places average
Air quality index
(% of days AQI ranked as good)
38.1% 71.9%
Personal crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
351 45
Property crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
176 74
Personal crime incidents
(per 100,000)
0 228
Property crime incidents
(per 100,000)
4,877 3,105
Median commute time
(in minutes)
31.4 20.8
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer
30.7% 13.4%
Leisure and culture
  City stats Best places average
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)
81 22
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)
9,609 2,268
Bars
(within 15 miles)
1,131 127
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)
201 74
Libraries
(within 15 miles)
170 43
Museums (accredited by AAM
within 30 miles)
16 7
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 12 10
Weather
  City stats Best places average
Annual precipitation
(inches)
38.01 36.00
Clear days 84 107
High temp in July ° F 84.4° 87.7°
Low temp in Jan ° F 18.3° 23.5°
Health*
  City stats Best places average
Has health plan
(% of residents)
84.6% 88.2%
Body mass index
(avg. for residents)
27 27
Cancer mortality
(per 100,000, age-adjusted)
210.8 191.3
Cardiac mortality
(per 100,000)
264.1 202.0
Meet the neighbors
  City stats Best places average
Median age 32.3 34.5
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)
54.5% 63.9%
Married 35.3% 54.3%
Divorced 8.9% 9.3%
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)
$5,910 $7,549
Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details
Illinois companies
FORTUNE: Best to work for
Company Best Companies
2006 Rank
CDW 34
Northwest Community Hospital 50
Wm. Wrigley Jr. 95
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FORTUNE 500
Company F500 rank
State Farm Insurance Cos 22
Boeing 26
Sears Holdings Corporation 33
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Biggest employers
Company Employees
Wachovia Securities Inc 71,262
Aramark Management Services Lp. 11,805
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company 11,000
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Information powered by OnBoard LLC
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.

Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.
Top earning cities
  Median household income
Greenwich, CT $112,493
Cupertino, CA $110,518
San Ramon, CA $109,500
See the rest
Hottest cities
  Avg. high temp
in July (°F)
Avondale, AZ 107.6°F
Glendale, AZ 107.6°F
Peoria, AZ 107.6°F
See the rest
Priciest homes
  Median price
Newport Beach, CA $1,362,500
Greenwich, CT $1,129,000
Santa Barbara, CA $979,500
See the rest
Most educated
  % residents with
graduate degrees
Arlington, VA 35.7%
Davis, CA 34.6%
Brookline, MA 32.5%
See the rest
Most singles
  % single residents
Bloomington, IN 58.2%
New Brunswick, NJ 54.6%
College Station, TX 54.3%
See the rest
Youngest
  Median age
Jacksonville, NC 22.90
Provo, UT 23.28
New Brunswick, NJ 24.16
See the rest

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.