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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-BLUE-ISLAND-IL · Blue Island, IL 23,416 pop · income 37th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Blue Island
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Blue Island on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brent · lowest
45,708
Brent · lowest
45,708 median HH income
38.3% of the leader · rank #1
Cedar Creek · near
60,962
Cedar Creek · near
60,962 median HH income
51.0% of the leader · rank #2
Holyrood · near
60,962
Holyrood · near
60,962 median HH income
51.0% of the leader · rank #3
Bradenton · near
60,964
Bradenton · near
60,964 median HH income
51.0% of the leader · rank #4
Stockton · near
60,964
Stockton · near
60,964 median HH income
51.0% of the leader · rank #5
Blue Island · this city
60,965
Blue Island · this city
60,965 median HH income
51.0% of the leader · rank #6
Cherry Hill · highest
119,474
Cherry Hill · highest
119,474 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Blue Island on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 23,416.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Blue Island - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Blue Island lands in the 37th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
15th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Blue Island, IL
Illinois's Blue Island is a small city, with 23,416 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Blue Island brings in $60,965 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Typical homes in Blue Island are valued around $169,800, and the median resident age is 36.7 years. Educational attainment runs 19.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 2 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Low Activity). Blue Island's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3121.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,063 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 26.1 minutes, with 69.4% driving alone and 5.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 54.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Blue Island's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Blue Island, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Blue Island?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Blue Island?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Lisle (23,413 residents, $106,173 income); Freeport (23,636 residents, $48,181 income); Loves Park (23,185 residents, $58,633 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pottstown, PA (23,392 residents); Brent, FL (23,441 residents); Cherry Hill, VA (23,443 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Blue Island?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.1 minutes.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Blue Island?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3121.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 37% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Population change
Is Blue Island growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -668 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-3.0%
2025 estimate
21,805
2020 estimate
22,473
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Blue Island?
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 19.3% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
8
Bachelor's degree+
19.3%
Poverty estimate
9.9%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 9.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
F
City profile score · Blue Island, IL
34/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living D
100.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$60,965
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
434 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Blue Island profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $60,965
Bachelor's+ share: 32/100 (F) · 19.3%
Violent crime: 20/100 (F) · 434 /100k
Where Blue Island sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Blue Island's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Blue Island highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Blue Island, IL (this city): home $169,800, crime 3,121/100k
Pottstown, PA : home $172,300, crime 3,842/100k
Champlin, MN : home $338,400, crime 1,252/100k
Glassboro, NJ : home $276,900, crime 1,230/100k
Lisle, IL : home $407,000, crime 498/100k
Freeport, IL : home $86,100, crime 1,770/100k
Loves Park, IL : home $144,900, crime 1,737/100k
Rolling Meadows, IL : home $299,700, crime 1,374/100k
Elmwood Park, IL : home $325,000, crime 1,277/100k
How does Blue Island compare to other US cities?
Blue Island measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety15% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Illinois, Blue Island ranks #415 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Blue Island against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Illinois only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Illinois-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Blue Island near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Blue Island ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Blue Island only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#813 of 1,311
38th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#424 of 1,315
68th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#467 of 1,335
65th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#607 of 1,336
54th percentile in Illinois
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Illinois only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Blue Island's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Blue Island's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Blue Island's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$169,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Blue Island's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,503 of 15,516
More affordable than 65% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#634 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Blue Island sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,503 of 15,516 and #634 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$60,965Blue Island, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Blue Island, IL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Blue Island, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,416
Median Income
$60,965
Median Home Value
$169,800
Median Age
36.7
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
58.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3121.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
434.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2686.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Blue Island's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
22,473 residents
2021
22,064 residents
2022
21,755 residents
2023
21,708 residents
2024
21,844 residents
2025
21,805 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
2
2
0
$0.8M
2021
4
4
0
$1.3M
2022
3
3
0
$1.0M
2023
4
1
3
$0.3M
2024
2
2
0
$0.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.1 minutes
Drive Alone
69.4%
Carpool
14.5%
Public Transit
8.2%
Walk
1.2%
Work from Home
5.7%
Other
1.0%
Based on 10,705 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Illinois statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $240
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Illinois at $240 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Illinois statewide averages, not a meter reading for Blue Island. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Illinois's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.0 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Blue Island is $1,063/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Illinois statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Illinois statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Blue Island sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Blue Island compares to similar-size Illinois cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.