Best PlacesGreat Lakes, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Great Lakes, 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.
Great Lakes ranks 27,949th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Great Lakes
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.
Great Lakes' strengths and weaknesses
Where Great Lakes ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.7 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
Where Great Lakes ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
Who lives in Great Lakes
Great Lakes runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Great Lakes.
Who works in Great Lakes, and how
Work in Great Lakes centers on public administration and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 32%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 35%
Life in Great Lakes
Great Lakes has more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Great Lakes and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Great Lakes, month by month
Great Lakes sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 25° | 19° |
| April | 56° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Great Lakes
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 23 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.8 million passengers in 2025, with 305 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Great Lakes
Schools across Great Lakes average a D−, better than 2% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lake Bluff Elem SchB · 50% proficient
- Evelyn Alexander SchoolF · 5% proficient
- A J Katzenmaier AcademyF · 5% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lake Bluff Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Neal Math Science AcademyF · 3% proficient
Top high schools
- Lake Forest High SchoolA · 67% proficient
- North Chicago Community High SchF · 6% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Great Lakes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Great Lakes 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 Great Lakes against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Great Lakes
Is Great Lakes a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Great Lakes ranks 27,949th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, biking, and short commutes, and lowest on property taxes and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Great Lakes safe?
Great Lakes is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $398 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Great Lakes?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 19. That works out to about 93 pleasant days a year, more than 63% of towns.
Compare Great Lakes with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Great Lakes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Great Lakes 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.
Great Lakes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Great Lakes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Great Lakes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Great Lakes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Great Lakes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Great Lakes 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.
- 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.