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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-CHATHAM-IL · Chatham, IL 14,740 pop · income 81st 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 Chatham
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chatham on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Deming · lowest
35,920
Deming · lowest
35,920 median HH income
21.8% of the leader · rank #1
Chatham · this city
106,030
Chatham · this city
106,030 median HH income
64.4% of the leader · rank #2
Tiffin · near
106,034
Tiffin · near
106,034 median HH income
64.4% of the leader · rank #3
Double Spring · near
106,042
Double Spring · near
106,042 median HH income
64.4% of the leader · rank #4
Gig Harbor · near
106,042
Gig Harbor · near
106,042 median HH income
64.4% of the leader · rank #5
Wilkeson · near
106,042
Wilkeson · near
106,042 median HH income
64.4% of the leader · rank #6
Ramsey · highest
164,767
Ramsey · highest
164,767 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 Chatham 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: 14,740.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Chatham - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Chatham places in the 81st percentile for household income and the 81st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
81st
percentile, household income
51st
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
81st
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: Chatham, IL
Chatham is a small town in Illinois, home to 14,740 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Chatham report a median income of $106,030 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.8%. Chatham's housing stock carries a median value of $231,900, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. About 49.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 68.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Chatham (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Chatham reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 597.4 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,063 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $240 across Illinois, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Chatham'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 reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chatham, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
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 Chatham?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.8%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Which cities make useful reference points for Chatham?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Antioch (14,751 residents, $118,635 income); Hickory Hills (14,718 residents, $85,541 income); Morris (14,775 residents, $72,357 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Deming, NM (14,735 residents); Hammonton, NJ (14,746 residents); Whitefish Bay, WI (14,750 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Chatham?
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 597.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 74% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Chatham?
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 77.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Chatham?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 49.4% 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
6
Bachelor's degree+
49.4%
Poverty estimate
0.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +154 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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
+1.1%
2025 estimate
14,579
2020 estimate
14,425
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B
City profile score · Chatham, IL
73/100
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 A+
0.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A-
49.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$106,030
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B
103 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Chatham profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 94/100 (A+) · 0.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 83/100 (A-) · 49.4%
Household income: 80/100 (A-) · $106,030
Violent crime: 70/100 (B) · 103 /100k
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Chatham sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Chatham'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 - Chatham highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Chatham, IL (this city): home $231,900, crime 597/100k
Hammonton, NJ : home $324,200, crime 1,315/100k
Whitefish Bay, WI : home $498,700, crime 949/100k
Worthington, OH : home $417,700, crime 1,410/100k
Ramsey, NJ : home $665,700, crime 1,033/100k
Antioch, IL : home $299,700, crime 570/100k
Hickory Hills, IL : home $278,400, crime 1,124/100k
Morris, IL : home $244,400, crime 1,828/100k
Sterling, IL : home $107,800, crime 1,653/100k
Swansea, IL : home $211,700, crime 785/100k
Mount Vernon, IL : home $89,700, crime 1,336/100k
How does Chatham compare to other US cities?
Where Chatham sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income81% higher than other cities
Home value51% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety81% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Illinois and the picture shifts: Chatham ranks #134 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chatham 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 Chatham near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chatham ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chatham only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#181 of 1,311
86th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#269 of 1,315
79th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#1,219 of 1,335
8th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#114 of 1,336
91st 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
81st percentile nationally for median household income · 81st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Chatham's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Chatham'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 Chatham's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$231,90049th percentilemore affordable than 49% 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
Chatham's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,397 of 15,516
More affordable than 85% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#135 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.2×, Chatham sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,397 of 15,516 and #135 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
$106,030Chatham, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chatham, 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 Chatham, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)49.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,740
Median Income
$106,030
Median Home Value
$231,900
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
0.8%
Labor force participation
68.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
49.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
597.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
103.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
494.4
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Chatham's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
14,425 residents
2021
14,477 residents
2022
14,462 residents
2023
14,552 residents
2024
14,592 residents
2025
14,579 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
100
32
68
$16.7M
2020
64
32
32
$13.0M
2021
47
43
4
$12.9M
2022
67
41
26
$17.7M
2023
36
31
5
$12.1M
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.6%
Carpool
5.9%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
14.1%
Other
1.6%
Based on 7,319 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 Chatham. 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 Chatham 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 Chatham sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chatham 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.