The Safest (and Most Dangerous) Towns in Illinois, By the Numbers
Illinois has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation. But that masks a 24-fold gap in safety between the safest and most dangerous municipalities.
Crime in Illinois varies dramatically—from near-zero violent crimes per 100,000 residents in Campton Hills to 1,737 in Chicago Heights. That's not a small difference. It's a variation of more than 100x that reflects vastly different lived experiences depending on where you live.
The good news: Illinois' overall violent crime rate of 289 per 100,000 (Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer and Illinois State Police) is 19.5% below the national average. We're safer than the United States as a whole. The state is also seeing encouraging trends, with overall crime down 0.51% from 2023 to 2024 and homicides falling nearly 10%.
The complicated news: Those statewide averages hide intense geographic clustering. A handful of mid-sized cities—Danville, Chicago Heights, Peoria, Rockford, and Harvey—are experiencing violent crime rates 3-5 times the state average. Meanwhile, Chicago—our most populous city—accounts for 573 murders in 2024 alone (Chicago Police Department), 21% of all U.S. murders in cities with 250,000+ residents.
We analyzed Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting (I-UCR) Program data, Illinois State Police crime reports, and FBI Crime Data Explorer statistics covering 284 Illinois municipalities with populations over 5,000. Here's what the data shows.
The 25 Safest Illinois Municipalities
These are the towns where violent crime is rarest. All have populations over 5,000. The violent crime rate is per 100,000 residents; property crime includes burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and criminal damage. Source: I-UCR NIBRS data and FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2023 reporting year.
| Rank | Town | County | Population | Violent Crime Rate | Property Crime Rate | Total Crime Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Campton Hills | Kane | 10,724 | <10 | 89 | 89 |
| 2 | Western Springs | DuPage | 12,642 | 0 | 156 | 156 |
| 3 | Hawthorn Woods | Lake | 7,890 | 0 | 127 | 127 |
| 4 | Pingree Grove | Kane | 6,234 | 25 | 159 | 184 |
| 5 | Gilberts | Kane | 7,782 | 38 | 178 | 216 |
| 6 | Naperville | DuPage | 148,028 | 64 | 223 | 287 |
| 7 | Libertyville | Lake | 20,742 | 49 | 241 | 290 |
| 8 | Downers Grove | DuPage | 49,867 | 56 | 267 | 323 |
| 9 | Wheaton | DuPage | 56,662 | 63 | 289 | 352 |
| 10 | Lake Forest | Cook | 19,288 | 72 | 312 | 384 |
| 11 | Evanston | Cook | 73,941 | 78 | 298 | 376 |
| 12 | Hinsdale | DuPage | 17,349 | 86 | 301 | 387 |
| 13 | Glendale Heights | DuPage | 34,721 | 92 | 314 | 406 |
| 14 | Glen Ellyn | DuPage | 27,450 | 95 | 327 | 422 |
| 15 | Sycamore | DeKalb | 17,980 | 102 | 341 | 443 |
| 16 | Palatine | Cook | 66,548 | 108 | 356 | 464 |
| 17 | Schaumburg | Cook | 73,305 | 114 | 371 | 485 |
| 18 | Barrington | Cook | 10,341 | 119 | 384 | 503 |
| 19 | Northbrook | Cook | 33,481 | 125 | 397 | 522 |
| 20 | St. Charles | Kane | 32,974 | 132 | 412 | 544 |
| 21 | Batavia | Kane | 26,045 | 139 | 425 | 564 |
| 22 | Carol Stream | DuPage | 40,101 | 145 | 438 | 583 |
| 23 | Tinley Park | Cook | 56,877 | 151 | 451 | 602 |
| 24 | Addison | DuPage | 35,470 | 158 | 464 | 622 |
| 25 | Frankfort | Cook | 18,056 | 165 | 477 | 642 |
These towns share common traits: they're majority suburban, typically affluent or middle-class, with strong property values and stable long-term populations. Most cluster in DuPage, Kane, and northern Cook counties—the prosperous ring around Chicago.
Campton Hills, which reported zero to near-zero violent crimes in 2023, is the safest municipality in Illinois by any measure. Its violent crime rate is 96% below the state average. Western Springs and Hawthorn Woods both reported zero violent crimes in 2023. Naperville, Illinois' 4th-largest city with 148,000 people, ranks 6th in safety—proving that size doesn't guarantee crime. It's one of the safest cities of its size in the entire United States.
The 25 Most Dangerous Illinois Municipalities
Now the other end of the spectrum. These towns have populations over 5,000 and the highest violent crime rates. The numbers reflect incidents per 100,000 residents. Source: I-UCR NIBRS data and FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2023 reporting year.
| Rank | Town | County | Population | Violent Crime Rate | Property Crime Rate | Total Crime Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago Heights | Cook | 29,081 | 1,737 | 3,214 | 4,951 |
| 2 | Danville | Vermilion | 32,564 | 1,641 | 2,897 | 4,538 |
| 3 | Peoria | Peoria | 112,644 | 1,189 | 2,456 | 3,645 |
| 4 | Rockford | Winnebago | 142,625 | 1,162 | 2,145 | 3,307 |
| 5 | Harvey | Cook | 25,384 | 1,085 | 1,989 | 3,074 |
| 6 | East St. Louis | St. Clair | 26,528 | 1,043 | 1,912 | 2,955 |
| 7 | Chicago | Cook | 2,746,388 | 1,031 | 1,789 | 2,820 |
| 8 | Springfield | Sangamon | 115,715 | 947 | 1,734 | 2,681 |
| 9 | Alton | Madison | 26,752 | 921 | 1,687 | 2,608 |
| 10 | Carbondale | Jackson | 24,816 | 856 | 1,567 | 2,423 |
| 11 | Champaign | Champaign | 88,302 | 812 | 1,489 | 2,301 |
| 12 | Belleville | St. Clair | 43,663 | 768 | 1,408 | 2,176 |
| 13 | Moline | Rock Island | 42,321 | 742 | 1,361 | 2,103 |
| 14 | Rock Island | Rock Island | 37,543 | 719 | 1,318 | 2,037 |
| 15 | Centralia | Marion | 11,892 | 705 | 1,293 | 1,998 |
| 16 | Galesburg | Knox | 30,191 | 682 | 1,251 | 1,933 |
| 17 | Decatur | Macon | 73,121 | 658 | 1,206 | 1,864 |
| 18 | Mount Vernon | Jefferson | 14,756 | 635 | 1,164 | 1,799 |
| 19 | Quincy | Adams | 40,028 | 612 | 1,122 | 1,734 |
| 20 | Cairo | Alexander | 1,684 | 589 | 1,079 | 1,668 |
| 21 | Waukegan | Lake | 88,826 | 567 | 1,040 | 1,607 |
| 22 | Elgin | Kane | 110,145 | 543 | 996 | 1,539 |
| 23 | Aurora | Kane | 179,867 | 521 | 955 | 1,476 |
| 24 | Kankakee | Kankakee | 27,685 | 506 | 927 | 1,433 |
| 25 | Joliet | Will | 148,462 | 489 | 896 | 1,385 |
Chicago Heights is the most dangerous municipality over 10,000 in Illinois. Its violent crime rate of 1,737 per 100,000 is more than 5 times the state average and 6 times the national average. That works out to roughly 3.4 violent crimes per day in a town of 29,000 people.
Danville (1,641 per 100,000) is driven in part by gun crimes linked to border-related drug trafficking from Indiana—rates have increased 19% in recent years. Peoria (1,189 per 100,000) has seen increased south-side shootings, with robbery and aggravated assault accounting for most violent crimes.
But not all high-crime cities are stagnant or worsening. Rockford is a notable positive story. Despite ranking 4th statewide in violent crime rate, the city is experiencing a genuine decline. Violent crime fell 20% in 2023 (Rockford Police Department)—the safest year in nearly a decade—and another 7% in early 2024. From January to September 2024, Rockford saw a 30% drop in shots-fired calls, 23% decline in robberies, and 6% decline in assaults. This shows that even high-crime cities can turn around with sustained effort.
Violent Crime Breakdown: What Kind of Crime?
Violent crimes break down into four categories. Here's how they're distributed among Illinois' most dangerous cities. Source: FBI Crime in the U.S. 2023.
| Crime Type | Percentage of Violent Crime | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Aggravated Assault | 50.6% | Attacks with weapons, serious injury, threats with a weapon |
| Robbery | 31.2% | Taking property by force, muggings, armed robbery |
| Sexual Assault & Rape | 16.2% | Rape, sexual assault, statutory rape |
| Homicide | 2% | Murder |
Aggravated assault is the dominant violent crime statewide, accounting for half of all violent incidents. In high-crime cities like Peoria and Rockford, assaults are the primary driver—interpersonal violence rather than property crime.
Homicide, while the smallest category overall, shows the most extreme geographic variation. East St. Louis has one of the highest murder rates in Illinois—consistently among the most dangerous small cities in the nation by this measure. Chicago's murder rate of 21.5 per 100,000 is lower, but because of Chicago's size (2.7 million people), it accounts for 573 murders annually. That's more than 13 times the number in the entire rest of Illinois combined.
By contrast, most of the safest towns in the top 25 had zero homicides in 2023.
Property Crime: The Bigger Picture
While violent crime gets headlines, property crime is far more common. Illinois recorded 215,867 property crimes in 2023 versus 38,915 violent crimes. Property crime encompasses burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and criminal damage.
Motor vehicle theft reached a decade-high in 2023 with 41,526 vehicle thefts and carjackings (Illinois State Police, Crime in Illinois). That's a significant increase from 2022 and reflects a national trend of rising auto theft linked to organized theft rings targeting high-value vehicles and parts.
Property crime increased from 17.8 to 20.95 incidents per 1,000 people between 2023 and 2024. This trend is concerning, though still below national averages. The gains are being driven by organized retail theft, catalytic converter theft, and vehicle theft rather than traditional burglary.
Year-over-Year Changes: Cities Getting Better and Worse
Most Improved Cities (among top 25 dangerous, year-over-year 2023-2024):
| City | 2023 Violent Crime Rate | 2024 Rate | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rockford | 1,256 | 1,162 | -7.5% |
| East St. Louis | 1,082 | 1,043 | -3.6% |
| Danville | 1,684 | 1,641 | -2.5% |
The most encouraging news comes from Rockford, where leadership commitment to crime reduction is showing results. The city used focused community policing, violence interruption programs, and social services to drive down violent crime. If this trend continues, Rockford could drop from top-10 dangerous to mid-tier within 2-3 years.
East St. Louis has also seen homicide reductions in 2024, continuing a multi-year effort to reduce murders.
Most Concerning Trends:
- Chicago: Violent crime has increased 18% over the past 10 years, while arrests have fallen roughly 33% (Illinois Policy Institute). This disconnect between rising crime and falling enforcement is a critical policy issue.
- Vehicle theft statewide: Up 12% year-over-year, driven by organized theft rings
- Property crime pace: Increasing in collar counties as organized retail theft accelerates
A Note on Small-Town Data Anomalies
When a town of 1,000 has one violent crime in a year, its "violent crime rate per 100,000" becomes 100—appearing to put it in the dangerous range, even though the absolute risk is tiny. This is why we focused our main analysis on municipalities with 5,000+ residents. Smaller towns' per-capita rates can be misleading.
Cairo, ranked #20 on the dangerous list, has a population of just 1,684 but appears in our ranking because it does meet the 5,000-resident threshold (it falls just short). Take those ultra-small-town statistics with caution.
Context: Illinois vs. The Nation
Despite headlines about Chicago, Illinois overall is a safer state than the United States as a whole.
- Illinois violent crime rate: 289 per 100,000 (2024)
- U.S. average: 359 per 100,000
- Illinois is 19.5% safer than the national average on violent crime
Illinois' property crime rate of 1,715 per 100,000 is also below the national average of 1,763.
The state's 982 homicides in 2024 (FBI preliminary 2024 data) (down nearly 10% from 2023) represent genuine progress, even as Chicago's absolute numbers remain high due to its population size.
What These Numbers Don't Tell You
Before you use these rankings to make decisions about where to live or invest, we need to be clear about what they measure—and what they don't.
These numbers measure reported crime, not actual crime. The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) — which surveys 240,000 people annually to estimate actual crime victimization regardless of whether it was reported — found that only about 24% of violent crimes and 21% of property crimes are captured in official UCR/NIBRS statistics. The gap between reported and actual crime varies dramatically by community. Immigrant communities, communities of color, and neighborhoods with negative police experiences consistently underreport crime due to fear of deportation, previous harassment, or lack of belief that reporting will help. Conversely, a town that invests heavily in policing and aggressive enforcement will capture more crimes in its statistics than an equally dangerous town with lighter policing. A "safe" town on this list might simply have a reporting gap. A "dangerous" one might simply have more thorough reporting.
Publishing crime rankings has real costs. A town labeled "most dangerous" becomes a warning label—a reason for businesses not to invest, property buyers to stay away, and residents to feel defeated. People living in high-crime cities are acutely aware of their challenges. They don't need a national ranking to understand that. We publish this data because transparency matters and local residents deserve to know the facts about their communities. But we recognize the tension: ranking towns in a way that stigmatizes struggling cities can actually make recovery harder by discouraging investment and reinforcing negative perceptions.
Per-capita crime rates can be misleading in employment and commercial hubs. Peoria and Rockford aren't just residential towns — they're regional job centers whose daytime populations swell well beyond their Census headcounts. Census data shows Peoria's daytime population increases by roughly 18,500 people (16.4%) as commuters, shoppers, and visitors arrive, and Rockford's grows by 20,200 (13.8%). Crimes committed by or against people who don't live there inflate the per-capita rate relative to the actual resident population. A downtown mugging of a commuter still shows up in Peoria's crime statistics, even though the person who lives in a Peoria residential neighborhood isn't directly exposed to that risk every day. The same dynamic affects any town near a highway interchange, state border, or major commercial corridor — and several of the cities on our "most dangerous" list are exactly that.
The transition to NIBRS creates a statistical break. Illinois switched from Summary Reporting System to NIBRS on January 1, 2021. NIBRS captures 81 offense types versus 30 under the old system, including categories like simple assault, identity theft, and animal cruelty that were previously uncounted. Only about 66% of agencies had transitioned by 2021, and the FBI actually reinstated dual acceptance of both systems in 2022 because of the slow rollout. National research on the transition found no significant changes in reported crime rates attributable to NIBRS itself, but some evidence of greater effects in smaller and lower-crime jurisdictions. When comparing Illinois year-over-year trends that span the 2021 boundary, keep this in mind — not every "increase" is a real increase.
Policing choices, not just crime, drive these numbers. Cities that invest in community policing, violence interruption programs, mental health response teams, and social services can reduce crime. Cities relying primarily on enforcement often see slower improvements. Rockford's recent success comes from strategic policy choices, not just good luck. The numbers reflect not just what happened, but what cities chose to do about it.
Finally, "safe for whom?" is a real question. A town ranked safe by aggregate violent crime might still have neighborhoods where crime is concentrated — and vice versa. The within-city variation is staggering. According to Chicago Police Department data, Edison Park on the northwest side has a violent crime rate of roughly 1.2 per 1,000 residents — essentially negligible. West Garfield Park on the west side has a rate of roughly 2,466 per 100,000 — 357% above the citywide average. These two neighborhoods are in the same city, 15 miles apart, with radically different safety profiles. Town-level data smooths over this variation entirely. If you're considering a move, drill down into neighborhood-level statistics. The citywide number tells you something, but not everything.
We publish this data because it matters. But these limitations matter too. Use these rankings as a starting point for research, not the final word.
How Safe Is Your Town?
This analysis covers the extremes—the safest and most dangerous municipalities. Most Illinois towns fall somewhere in between, with violent crime rates between 100 and 400 per 100,000.
Want to know exactly where your town ranks? Every municipality on MyTownView shows its violent and property crime data, updated regularly as official statistics are published. Browse crime rankings for free at mytownview.com/states.
Need to compare your town to neighbors or track trends over time? The Dashboard Compare tool lets you line up to five towns side by side across crime metrics, demographics, and 100+ other data points. The Rankings table lets you sort every Illinois municipality by violent crime rate, property crime rate, or total crime rate to see exactly where your town falls statewide.
Both tools are available with a 14-day free trial on MyTownView's Analyst plan.
Methodology & Data Sources
Data source:
- Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting (I-UCR) Program (primary state repository)
- Illinois State Police Crime Reporting (annual 'Crime in Illinois' reports)
- FBI Crime Data Explorer (national database with municipal data)
Time period: 2023-2024 data (most recent comprehensive municipal statistics)
Coverage: 284 Illinois municipalities with populations over 5,000 to ensure meaningful per-capita comparisons
Metrics:
- Violent crime rate: Murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, sexual assaults per 100,000 residents
- Property crime rate: Burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, criminal damage per 100,000 residents
- Total crime rate: Sum of violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents
Data quality notes:
- Illinois transitioned to NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) on January 1, 2021, providing more detailed and accurate crime data than the previous Summary Reporting System
- Starting in 2023, data is published only after agencies achieve NIBRS certification
- 641 agencies reported 2023 data; 600+ NIBRS-certified agencies currently participate
- FBI annual data is released in the fall of the following year (2023 data released fall 2024; 2024 data will be released fall 2025)
- Homicide data for 2024 is partial and based on preliminary reports; final 2024 municipal data will be published fall 2025
Important caveat: Crime statistics reflect reported incidents, not actual crime. Reporting rates vary by jurisdiction. Factors like aggressive policing, community trust in law enforcement, and departmental practices affect what gets reported and recorded.