Best PlacesRound Knob, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Round Knob, 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.
Round Knob ranks 33,770th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Round Knob
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.
Round Knob's strengths and weaknesses
Where Round Knob ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 83% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 75% of towns
Where Round Knob ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Round Knob
A household needs to earn about $48,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Round Knob home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,187, 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 Round Knob's effective rate of 1.23%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Round Knob
Round Knob runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Round Knob.
Who works in Round Knob, and how
Work in Round Knob centers on transportation & warehousing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Round Knob
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Round Knob.
What the weather is like in Round Knob, month by month
Round Knob sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 48° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Round Knob
The nearest airport, Barkley Regional, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 136 miles away.
The best schools in and around Round Knob
Schools across Round Knob average a D+, better than 17% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Franklin Elem SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Jefferson Elem SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Massac Jr High SchoolC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Massac County High SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Round Knob school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Round Knob 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 Round Knob against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Round Knob
Is Round Knob a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Round Knob ranks 33,770th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, civic engagement, and what local pay buys, 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 Round Knob expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $172,881. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $83,187 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Round Knob safe?
Round Knob is safer than 39% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $260 per resident a year.
Compare Round Knob with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Round Knob. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Round Knob 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.
Round Knob detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Round Knob: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Round Knob: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Round Knob: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Round Knob: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Round Knob 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.