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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-WAYNE-IL · Wayne, IL 2,284 pop · income 96th 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 Wayne
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wayne on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bowdon · lowest
44,674
Bowdon · lowest
44,674 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #1
Irvington · near
169,411
Irvington · near
169,411 median HH income
99.7% of the leader · rank #2
Topsfield · near
169,468
Topsfield · near
169,468 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #3
Wayne · this city
169,583
Wayne · this city
169,583 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #4
Buckhall · near
169,591
Buckhall · near
169,591 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #5
Highland Lakes · near
169,833
Highland Lakes · near
169,833 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Hillsdale · highest
169,862
Hillsdale · highest
169,862 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 Wayne 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: 2,284.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wayne - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Wayne places in the 96th percentile for household income and the 98th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
96th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
98th
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: Wayne, IL
Wayne is a small town in Illinois, home to 2,284 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $169,583 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.4%. Home values in Wayne run a median of $674,000, and the median resident age is 50.6 years. 59.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 3 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 25% from five years earlier. Wayne reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 89.5 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,063 monthly. 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 Wayne'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 population change to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wayne, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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 Wayne?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.4%, 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 Wayne?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Hinckley (2,286 residents, $81,625 income); Tremont (2,300 residents, $77,420 income); Fox Lake Hills (2,304 residents, $111,477 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bowdon, GA (2,284 residents); Mount Zion, GA (2,284 residents); Lake Katrine, NY (2,284 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 Wayne?
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 89.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 96% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wayne?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
17.2%
Drive alone
78.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,321 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 59.5% 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.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
1
Bachelor's degree+
59.5%
Poverty estimate
0.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Top-decile income · poverty 0.4% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
A
City profile score · Wayne, IL
85/100
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+
$169,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A+
0.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A+
59.5%
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.
Wayne profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $169,583
Poverty rate: 97/100 (A+) · 0.4%
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 59.5%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Wayne sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wayne'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 - Wayne highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Wayne, IL (this city): home $674,000, crime 90/100k
Bowdon, GA : home $172,700, crime 1,077/100k
Mount Zion, GA : home $217,200, crime 379/100k
Shiner, TX : home $219,800, crime 689/100k
Hinckley, IL : home $267,600, crime 968/100k
Tremont, IL : home $200,600, crime 537/100k
Casey, IL : home $86,000, crime 1,501/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Wayne compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wayne stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income96% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety98% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Illinois alone, Wayne ranks #19 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wayne 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 Wayne near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wayne ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wayne only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#33 of 1,311
97th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#23 of 1,315
98th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#1,237 of 1,335
7th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#66 of 1,336
95th 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
96th percentile nationally for median household income · 98th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wayne's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wayne'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 Wayne's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$674,0008th percentilemore affordable than 8% 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
Wayne's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,635 of 15,516
More affordable than 31% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,325 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.0×, Wayne sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,635 of 15,516 and #8,325 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$169,583Wayne, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wayne, 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 Wayne, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)59.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,284
Median Income
$169,583
Median Home Value
$674,000
Median Age
50.6
Poverty Rate
0.4%
Labor force participation
69.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
59.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
89.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
89.5
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wayne's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,276 residents
2021
2,258 residents
2022
2,241 residents
2023
2,256 residents
2024
2,276 residents
2025
2,278 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$1.9M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
6
6
0
$4.0M
2023
6
6
0
$4.9M
2024
3
3
0
$3.5M
Permit volume decreased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.3%
Carpool
3.3%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
17.2%
Based on 1,321 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 Wayne. 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 Wayne 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 Wayne sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wayne 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.