The 10 Best College Towns In Illinois For 2024

Believe it or not, America has the best colleges in the world. It's been proven by data (and surveys) that the U.S. educational system is of the highest quality

It's actually not even close and Illinois is home to a handful of them.

While we could debate which colleges within Illinois are the 'best,' that's not the goal of this post.

Instead, ride along with us as we determine which college towns in Illinois are the best.

You know, the type of places where there's energy and stimulation, but the type of place you can walk around at night. The happiest, chillest, most downright fun places where you can send your kids off to college where you won't break the bank, or worry about their well being.

The 10 Best College Towns In Illinois For 2024

1. Charleston, IL
2. Champaign, IL
3. Macomb, IL
4. Normal, IL
5. Lisle, IL
6. Galesburg, IL
7. Lincoln, IL
8. Evanston, IL
9. Greenville, IL
10. Wheaton, IL

While some of these may not seem like a 'real' college town per se, when you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue against.

And for those who live in Charleston, Champaign and Macomb - we tip our hats to you and we'll schedule a tour for next week. You can see where Charleston ranks in terms of the best college town in America.

Finally, if you live in Skokie, IL - it's officially the worst college town in Illinois. Sorry, Skokie!

Read on to find out more or for more on Illinois check out:

• Best Places To Live In Illinois
• Best Counties To Live In Illinois
• Cheapest Places To Live In Illinois

The 10 Best College Towns In Illinois For 2024

Colleges: Eastern Illinois University

Colleges: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Parkland College, Regency Beauty Institute-Champaign

Colleges: Western Illinois University

Colleges: Illinois State University, Heartland Community College, Paul Mitchell the School-Normal

Colleges: Benedictine University, Universal Technical Institute of Illinois Inc, Empire Beauty School-Lisle

Colleges: Carl Sandburg College, Knox College

Colleges: Lincoln College, Lincoln Christian University

Colleges: Northwestern University, Pivot Point Academy-Evanston, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Colleges: Greenville College

Colleges: Wheaton College

How'd we figure out the best college towns in Illinois?

To crunch our data on Illinois's best college towns, we used Saturday Night Science to decide which qualities (or rankings) make sense to use in the data, and then crunch the numbers for our rankings.

First off, we firmly decided that only cities with a 4 year college should make the cut -- so there has to be at least one college granting bachelors degrees in town.

You might be surprised to hear that there are only 33 places in Illinois with an institution of higher learning with that criteria.

Source of data include OpenStreetMaps, the College Scorecard, the U.S. Census, and FBI reporting data to include the following factors:

• Students Make Up Large % of the Population
• College-specific Factors
• Graduation rate
• Tuition Cost
• Student Body Diversity
• Town Characteristics
• Safety
• Affordability
• Income and Employment Opportunities
• Things to Do
• Bars
• Museums & Libraries
• Population Density

We ranked each city across each of the criteria, with one being the best.

We rolled up the individual scores into the category and ranked them again based on the category.

Finally, we took the average rank across each category, with the city posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title "Best College Town In Illinois For 2024." We updated this article for 2024. This is our six time ranking the best college towns in Illinois.

And it looks like Charleston placed Summa Cum Laude.

There You Have It -- The Best College Towns In The Illinois

If you're looking for the best college towns in Illinois, you came to the right place.

The best college towns in Illinois are Charleston, Champaign, Macomb, Normal, Lisle, Galesburg, Lincoln, Evanston, Greenville, and Wheaton.

These places all have great college sports programs, tons of stuff to do, and are great places to raise a family.

If you're curious, these are the worst college towns in Illinois, starting with the absolute worst, Skokie:

1. Skokie
2. Decatur
3. Rockford
4. Deerfield
5. Joliet
6. Peoria
7. Elgin
8. Naperville
9. Palos Heights
10. Bloomington

For more reading, check out:

• Cheapest Places To Live In Illinois
• Best Places To Retire In Illinois
• Most Dangerous Cities In Illinois

33 Best College Towns In Illinois

Rank	City	Population
1	Charleston, IL	17795
2	Champaign, IL	88628
3	Macomb, IL	15207
4	Normal, IL	52920
5	Lisle, IL	23499
6	Galesburg, IL	29923
7	Lincoln, IL	13371
8	Evanston, IL	77181
9	Greenville, IL	7121
10	Wheaton, IL	53673
11	River Forest, IL	11568
12	Elmhurst, IL	45648
13	Edwardsville, IL	26622
14	Chicago, IL	2721914
15	Aurora, IL	181405
16	Lake Forest, IL	19436
17	Carlinville, IL	5724
18	Springfield, IL	114214
19	Monmouth, IL	8764
20	Carbondale, IL	22039
21	Jacksonville, IL	17639
22	Bourbonnais, IL	18125
23	Schaumburg, IL	77571
24	Bloomington, IL	78788
25	Palos Heights, IL	11965
26	Naperville, IL	149089
27	Elgin, IL	114190
28	Peoria, IL	113054
29	Joliet, IL	150221
30	Deerfield, IL	19173
31	Rockford, IL	148173
32	Decatur, IL	70975
33	Skokie, IL	67076