Most Livable Place in Illinois is a Tiny Town Near Springfield?

When you see new "best of" lists for Illinois, the usual suspects that come up are the many affluent communities that border the Chicagoland area. That's not the case for the new 2025 most livable places list which says a tiny town near Springfield is as good as it gets in Illinois.

I saw this new ranking from Go Banking Rates which named the most livable city in every state for 2025. It measured the following 5 categories: household median income, livability, expenditure monthly average cost, mortgage monthly average cost and the total cost of living monthly. With all of those numbers crunched, this is the community near Springfield that came in at #1.

This is Jerome, Illinois which is in the western part of the Springfield area. Population of Jerome is just over 1,500 according to most recent census.

Here are the scores that won the day for little Jerome, Illinois:

• Household median income: $52,083
• Livability: 92
• Expenditure monthly average cost: $1,902
• Mortgage monthly average cost: $841
• Total cost of living monthly: $2,743

The reasonably low living cost per month is likely what helped Jerome score higher than the more ritzy places in northern Illinois. The housing cost is especially low if you can find a place to stay for less than $900 per month. The fact that it's so close to legendary Route 66 doesn't hurt either.