The 25 safest suburbs in Illinois.

The full safety index.

Ranked on the everycity safety index for May 2026: violent and property crime per 1,000 residents from the latest FBI submissions, normalized for population and weighted toward the violent rate.

The index rewards a low violent rate above all else, then a low property rate, then the consistency of both across three years of reporting. A town with a violent rate near zero and a property rate under 6.0 per 1,000 outranks a larger suburb that posts a respectable but higher property figure. The three numbered columns below carry the violent crime rate, the property crime rate, and the population, each from the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Reporting submission and the Census American Community Survey. The score in the final column is the composite, with green marking a safety index of 8.0 or above and amber marking 6.0 to 7.9. Every suburb in the top 25 scores in the green band; the larger towns in the amber band sit in the honorable mentions below.

Read the table by column rather than by rank to match it to a specific worry. The violent crime column favors the small Lake County villages of Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods, where the rate sits at or near 0.1 per 1,000; the property crime column rewards the same small towns of Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods at 3.5 and 3.8; and the population column separates the tiny enclaves from the large planned cities such as Naperville, which holds a green score across a population near 150,000. A high property number on a large suburb is not a red flag on its own: Naperville at 12.5 per 1,000 still sits well below the Illinois state property rate of 19.6.

The single most useful pattern in the table is the gap between the violent and property rates. Across all 25 towns the violent rate stays under 1.0 per 1,000, a small fraction of the state figure, while the property rate ranges more widely from 3.5 to 13.0. That spread tells a relocating family where the real risk sits in an Illinois suburb: not in the rare violent incident, which these towns have all but engineered out, but in the property theft that follows density, retail, and through traffic. The safest large suburbs are the ones that keep the property rate down despite the size, which is why Naperville, Wheaton, and Glenview still earn a place at the floor of the green band. For the cost behind the safety, the cheapest US cities and highest paying US cities rankings set the trade in context.

The cost of safety is the figure the table cannot show, and in Illinois it runs the opposite way to the Sun Belt. The state levies a flat 4.95 percent income tax and, more to the point, one of the highest property tax rates in the nation, which rises with the home value that the safest suburbs command. A buyer comparing the Chicago North Shore enclaves of Kenilworth or Winnetka against the western suburbs of Glen Ellyn or Wheaton is weighing not only the sticker price of the house but the annual property tax that follows it, which can clear 20,000 dollars a year on a family home. The tax calculator prices the after tax position, and the lowest tax cities in the USA ranking shows how far the no income tax states sit from Illinois on the property line.

The fourth pattern is the role of the local police budget. Almost every town in the top tier funds its own municipal department rather than relying on a county sheriff, and the patrol density that buys shows up directly in the violent rate. The North Shore villages of Kenilworth and Winnetka, and the Lake County towns of Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods, spend more per resident on policing than the larger amber suburbs, and the crime numbers follow the spending. A buyer comparing two towns with similar housing should check whether each runs its own force, because the budget is the quiet engine behind the score. The lowest crime ranking carries the national field behind the Illinois leaders.

How the safety index works.

The safety index is a composite of four measured inputs, weighted to reward a low violent rate above all else and a record that holds across three years.

The index refreshes quarterly. The violent and property rates draw on the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting and National Incident Based Reporting submissions for each municipal police department and the Illinois State Police, the population on the Census American Community Survey, and the rankings are cross checked against independent safe city analyses on the same FBI base. Where a town runs its own police department, as most of the North Shore enclaves do, we score the town record rather than the county. A suburb that did not submit a complete crime report, or that fell below the population threshold for reliable rates, is excluded rather than estimated.

One limit of the method is worth stating plainly. A crime rate measures reported incidents against residents, not the lived feeling of a street, and two towns with the same score can sit very differently for a given family depending on schools, commute, and cost. We hold the four measured axes as the comparable spine and leave the texture to the neighborhood detail, which a buyer should confirm against the local police department dashboard before a move. For the cost and income that sit alongside the safety, the best cities for jobs and remote work rankings carry the economic read, and the cost of living calculator prices a full month against your current home. A longer relocation, especially one that crosses a state line, is worth covering with SafetyWing until local coverage begins.

The same list, reordered by need.

A safe suburb means different things to a young family, a commuter, a retiree, and a buyer on a budget. The same 25 towns reorder depending on what you need the safety to sit beside.

For the young family that ranks schools alongside safety, the large planned suburbs win over the tiny enclaves. Naperville, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, and Glenview pair a green safety score with public school districts that rank among the strongest in the United States, deep enough that a family is not betting the move on a single campus. The trade against the top three enclaves is a slightly higher property rate in exchange for a real district and a deeper housing market. The safest cities for families ranking carries the national field, and the relocation score tool grades each town against your current address.

For the downtown commuter, the rail line decides it. The North Shore villages of Winnetka, Wilmette, and Glenview, and the western towns of Hinsdale, Western Springs, and Glen Ellyn, all sit on a commuter rail line into Chicago, which keeps the daily ride under an hour while preserving the suburban safety. A commuter should weight the walk to the station as heavily as the crime rate, because a safe town with a 20 minute drive to the train is a longer day than a slightly busier one across the road from it. The cities for public transit ranking carries the transit read.

For the retiree who wants quiet and proximity to top healthcare, the North Shore wins on hospitals. The villages near Evanston and Glenview sit within reach of some of the strongest medical centers in the Midwest, pairing the low crime with the care that matters most after 65. The trade is the Illinois property tax, which is the number a retiree on a fixed income should price before the move. The best cities for retirees ranking weights healthcare alongside safety, and the tax calculator prices the after tax position.

For the buyer working to a budget, the list reorders hardest. The cheapest safe suburbs here are the western and outer Lake County towns of Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, and Buffalo Grove, where the same safety costs far less than the North Shore enclaves of Kenilworth and Winnetka. A buyer should weigh the safety against the cost rather than chase the rank, because the gap between index 9.6 and index 8.1 is small while the price gap is large. The cheapest US cities ranking tracks the value, the cost of living calculator prices a full month, and a relocation scouting trip through Booking.com covers the first nights before a lease is signed.

One closing reorder, for the buyer who values walkability over land. The denser suburbs of Evanston, Oak Park, and Park Ridge trade a slightly higher crime rate for a real downtown, a train, and a life that does not require a car for every errand, while the low density Lake County towns offer the lowest crime in exchange for a car dependent routine. Neither is better; they suit different lives. The where should I live quiz weighs the space against the connection, and the neighborhood matcher narrows the metro to the streets that fit. The most walkable cities ranking carries the wider field for the buyer who wants to leave the car at home.

For the remote worker who no longer commutes, the calculus flips toward cost and space over the rail line. The outer Lake County and Kane County towns of Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove, and Geneva deliver the lowest crime at a lower price than the rail served North Shore, and a worker who drives to the office twice a month rather than daily can trade the commute for the quiet. The remote work ranking and the NordVPN review cover the working from home side, and the relocation checklist sets out the order of operations for the move itself.