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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-VERNON-HILLS-IL · Vernon Hills, IL 26,772 pop · income 87th 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 Vernon Hills
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Vernon Hills on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chicago Heigh… · lowest
57,479
Chicago Heigh… · lowest
57,479 median HH income
41.0% of the leader · rank #1
Vernon Hills · this city
120,625
Vernon Hills · this city
120,625 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #2
Tazlina · near
120,625
Tazlina · near
120,625 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #3
Fenwick Island · near
120,625
Fenwick Island · near
120,625 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #4
Big Lake · near
120,625
Big Lake · near
120,625 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #5
High Forest · near
120,625
High Forest · near
120,625 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #6
Camas · highest
140,053
Camas · highest
140,053 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 Vernon Hills 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: 26,772.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Vernon Hills - the verdict
Vernon Hills ranks in the 87th percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
87th
percentile, household income
76th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Vernon Hills, IL
Illinois's Vernon Hills is a small city, with 26,772 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Vernon Hills report a median income of $120,625 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.6%. Typical homes in Vernon Hills are valued around $384,800, and the median resident age is 41.3 years. Educational attainment runs 66.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 65.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 8 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 74% from five years earlier. Vernon Hills reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1524.7 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Illinois at 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,063 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Illinois's average monthly utility costs around $240 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 54.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Vernon Hills'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 housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Vernon Hills, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, 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 Vernon Hills?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.3%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
How far does income reach against housing in Vernon Hills?
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 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Vernon Hills?
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 9 public schools within the city match. 66.6% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Vernon Hills?
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 Batavia (26,730 residents, $119,167 income); Granite City (26,670 residents, $60,490 income); Oak Forest (26,888 residents, $87,941 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Camas, WA (26,779 residents); South Portland, ME (26,780 residents); Ewa Gentry, HI (26,738 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Vernon Hills?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1524.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
Total reported rate
1524.7
Violent rate
60.1
Property rate
1464.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Vernon Hills growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +10 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
26,815
2025 estimate
26,825
Period change
+0.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B+
City profile score · Vernon Hills, IL
75/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
66.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A
$120,625
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A-
60 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B
3.6%
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.
Vernon Hills profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 96/100 (A+) · 66.6%
Household income: 86/100 (A) · $120,625
Violent crime: 81/100 (A-) · 60 /100k
Poverty rate: 74/100 (B) · 3.6%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Vernon Hills sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Vernon Hills'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 - Vernon Hills highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Vernon Hills, IL (this city): home $384,800, crime 1,525/100k
Camas, WA : home $656,100, crime 781/100k
South Portland, ME : home $405,800, crime 1,433/100k
Cabot, AR : home $197,000, crime 1,668/100k
Batavia, IL : home $358,000, crime 843/100k
Granite City, IL : home $99,800, crime 3,108/100k
Oak Forest, IL : home $247,800, crime 527/100k
Chicago Heights, IL : home $149,900, crime 3,965/100k
Edwardsville, IL : home $286,700, crime 713/100k
Round Lake Beach, IL : home $191,200, crime 983/100k
How does Vernon Hills compare to other US cities?
Vernon Hills measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income87% higher than other cities
Home value76% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety45% 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: Vernon Hills ranks #312 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 Vernon Hills 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 Vernon Hills near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Vernon Hills ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Vernon Hills only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#108 of 1,311
92nd percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#71 of 1,315
95th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#963 of 1,335
27th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#47 of 1,336
96th 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
87th percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Vernon Hills's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Vernon Hills'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 Vernon Hills's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$384,80024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
Vernon Hills's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,641 of 15,516
More affordable than 51% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,155 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Vernon Hills sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,641 of 15,516 and #1,155 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$120,625Vernon Hills, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Vernon Hills, 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 Vernon Hills, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)66.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,772
Median Income
$120,625
Median Home Value
$384,800
Median Age
41.3
Poverty Rate
3.6%
Labor force participation
65.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
66.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1524.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
60.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1464.6
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Vernon Hills's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
26,815 residents
2021
26,803 residents
2022
26,843 residents
2023
26,837 residents
2024
26,867 residents
2025
26,825 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
31
31
0
$22.1M
2020
33
33
0
$20.3M
2021
73
73
0
$46.0M
2022
10
10
0
$8.4M
2023
7
7
0
$6.5M
2024
8
8
0
$13.2M
Permit volume decreased 74% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
63.3%
Carpool
4.8%
Public Transit
2.6%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
26.3%
Other
1.7%
Based on 13,766 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 Vernon Hills. 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 Vernon Hills 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 Vernon Hills sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Vernon Hills 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.