Best PlacesEast St. Louis, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East St. Louis, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
East St. Louis ranks 50,091st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in East St. Louis
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.
East St. Louis' strengths and weaknesses
Where East St. Louis ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 80% of towns
Where East St. Louis ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Household income$42,293 median, better than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East St. Louis
A household needs to earn about $18,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East St. Louis home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $42,293, 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 East St. Louis' effective rate of 1.46%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in East St. Louis
East St. Louis runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for East St. Louis.
Who works in East St. Louis, and how
Work in East St. Louis centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in East St. Louis
East St. Louis has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 87% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of East St. Louis and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in East St. Louis, month by month
East St. Louis sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of East St. Louis
The nearest airport, Scott AFB/Midamerica St Louis, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 17 miles away.
The best schools in and around East St. Louis
Schools across East St. Louis average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ellis Elem SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Signal Hill Elem SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Bluffview Elem SchoolD · 16% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dorris Intermediate SchD− · 16% proficient
- Harmony Intermediate CenterD− · 15% proficient
- Dupo Jr High SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Collinsville High SchoolD · 19% proficient
- Dupo High SchoolF · 10% proficient
- Siu Charter Sch Of East St LouisF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East St. Louis school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East St. Louis 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 East St. Louis against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East St. Louis
Is East St. Louis a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East St. Louis ranks 50,091st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and walkability, and lowest on the schools and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is East St. Louis expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $63,091. The overall cost of living runs about 27% below the national average. Set against a $42,293 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is East St. Louis safe?
East St. Louis is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $990 per resident a year.
Compare East St. Louis with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East St. Louis. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East St. Louis 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.
East St. Louis detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East St. Louis: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East St. Louis: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East St. Louis: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East St. Louis: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East St. Louis 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.