Illinois’ Smallest Towns

I recently saw a video of people discussing Illinois. One of the questions that came up was "What or where is Downstate Illinois?"

One person thought "Downstate Illinois" was anything south of the Wisconsin border. Which, as you know, means...everything. Another thought it was anything below Bloomington. One other person weighed in with "It's anything outside the city of Chicago, and really, is there anything outside of Chicago? I don't think so!"

Most everyone with a basic knowledge of city names can tell you the top 3 cities in Illinois based on population, maybe even the top 5:

1. Chicago
2. Aurora
3. Rockford
4. Joliet
5. Naperville

But how about the real "Downstate Illinois?" The small towns/villages that make up the fabric of our state deserve to be mentioned as well. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 Census, these are Illinois' smallest towns:

Numbers courtesy of City Data (town name followed by population):

Batchtown- 211
Adair, IL- 210
Keensburg- 207
Buncombe- 207
Donnellson, IL- 207
New Grand Chain- 205
Baylis- 204
Du Bois, IL -204
Hooppole- 203
Spillertown -203
Pulaski, IL -201
Shumway -201

There are even a few places with double digit populations:

Bentley town -35

Fults village -26

Time village -23

Kaskaskia village -14

Valley City village -13

As for the definition of "Downstate Illinois," here's what Wikipedia says:

Downstate Illinois refers to all of Illinois south of the Chicago metropolitan area. This term is flexible, but because it is generally meant to refer to everything outside the Chicago area; some cities in NorthernIllinois, such as Rockford (which is north of Chicago), are considered to be "downstate".