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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-NEW-LENOX-IL · New Lenox, IL 27,456 pop · income 91st 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 New Lenox
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Lenox on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pearl · lowest
54,643
Pearl · lowest
54,643 median HH income
28.4% of the leader · rank #1
Drum Point · near
133,059
Drum Point · near
133,059 median HH income
69.2% of the leader · rank #2
New Lenox · this city
133,071
New Lenox · this city
133,071 median HH income
69.2% of the leader · rank #3
Four Bridges · near
133,079
Four Bridges · near
133,079 median HH income
69.2% of the leader · rank #4
Summerland · near
133,083
Summerland · near
133,083 median HH income
69.2% of the leader · rank #5
Keyport · near
133,086
Keyport · near
133,086 median HH income
69.2% of the leader · rank #6
Wilmette · highest
192,300
Wilmette · highest
192,300 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 New Lenox 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: 27,456.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Lenox - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, New Lenox places in the 91st percentile for household income and the 65th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
91st
percentile, household income
75th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
65th
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: New Lenox, IL
27,456 people live in New Lenox, Illinois - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $133,071 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.7%. Home values in New Lenox run a median of $377,500, and the median resident age is 37.3 years. About 45.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 69.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 185 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 28% from five years earlier. New Lenox reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 978.3 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. 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 New Lenox'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 work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Lenox, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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
What does the journey to work look like in New Lenox?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What does the education layer cover for New Lenox?
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.
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 45.5% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in New Lenox?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 978.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 57% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Lenox?
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.
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Wilmette (27,550 residents, $192,300 income); McHenry (27,774 residents, $86,865 income); Round Lake Beach (27,081 residents, $86,632 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pearl, MS (27,458 residents); Kernersville, NC (27,439 residents); Athens, AL (27,474 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.
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 New Lenox growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,634 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 185 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
27,259
2025 estimate
28,893
Period change
+6.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in New Lenox?
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.
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 1.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.8×
Home value
$377,500
Household income
$133,071
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B+
City profile score · New Lenox, IL
77/100
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.
Household income A+
$133,071
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A
1.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A-
53 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A-
45.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
New Lenox profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 91/100 (A+) · $133,071
Poverty rate: 88/100 (A) · 1.7%
Violent crime: 83/100 (A-) · 53 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.5%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where New Lenox sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Lenox'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 - New Lenox highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
New Lenox, IL (this city): home $377,500, crime 978/100k
Kernersville, NC : home $264,000, crime 3,376/100k
Athens, AL : home $253,700, crime 2,313/100k
Millville, NJ : home $199,300, crime 4,360/100k
Lemon Grove, CA : home $640,600, crime 1,517/100k
Bristol, TN : home $182,500, crime 2,322/100k
Wilmette, IL : home $802,200, crime 1,210/100k
McHenry, IL : home $244,900, crime 714/100k
Round Lake Beach, IL : home $191,200, crime 983/100k
Huntley, IL : home $318,500, crime 457/100k
Chicago Heights, IL : home $149,900, crime 3,965/100k
Oak Forest, IL : home $247,800, crime 527/100k
How does New Lenox compare to other US cities?
Here's how New Lenox stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value75% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety65% 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: New Lenox ranks #242 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 New Lenox 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 New Lenox near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Lenox ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Lenox only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#77 of 1,311
94th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#74 of 1,315
94th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#1,143 of 1,335
13th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#140 of 1,336
89th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income · 65th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Lenox's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Lenox'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 New Lenox's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$377,50025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
New Lenox's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,784 of 15,516
More affordable than 63% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#687 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, New Lenox sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,784 of 15,516 and #687 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
$133,071New Lenox, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Lenox, 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 New Lenox, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
27,456
Median Income
$133,071
Median Home Value
$377,500
Median Age
37.3
Poverty Rate
1.7%
Labor force participation
69.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
978.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
53.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
925.3
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
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Lenox's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
27,259 residents
2021
27,528 residents
2022
27,645 residents
2023
28,159 residents
2024
28,495 residents
2025
28,893 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
185
housing units authorized
Single-Family
185
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
144
119
25
$44.6M
2020
131
131
0
$46.2M
2021
134
134
0
$44.6M
2022
184
96
88
$36.5M
2023
107
107
0
$36.3M
2024
185
185
0
$73.6M
Permit volume increased 28% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.7%
Carpool
5.6%
Public Transit
3.5%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
14.2%
Other
0.6%
Based on 13,887 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 New Lenox. 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 New Lenox 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 New Lenox sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Lenox 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.