Best PlacesCarlinville, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carlinville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carlinville ranks 21,417th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carlinville
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Carlinville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carlinville ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
Where Carlinville ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carlinville
A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carlinville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,391, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Carlinville's effective rate of 1.70%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carlinville
Carlinville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Carlinville.
Who works in Carlinville, and how
Work in Carlinville centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Carlinville
Carlinville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Carlinville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carlinville, month by month
Carlinville sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Carlinville
The nearest airport, Abraham Lincoln Capital, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carlinville
Schools across Carlinville average a B−, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Carlinville Primary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Carlinville Intermediate SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- North Mac IntermediateD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carlinville Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
- Gillespie Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
- Northwestern Jr High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Top high schools
- Carlinville High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Gillespie High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- North Mac High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carlinville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carlinville measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Carlinville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carlinville
Is Carlinville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carlinville ranks 21,417th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, walkability, and transit, and lowest on taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carlinville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $126,453. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $76,391 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Carlinville safe?
Carlinville is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $326 per resident a year.
Compare Carlinville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carlinville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carlinville represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Carlinville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carlinville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carlinville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carlinville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carlinville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carlinville detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.