Best PlacesWilmington, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wilmington, 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.
Wilmington ranks 20,796th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wilmington
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.
Wilmington's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wilmington ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 84% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- BikingBetter than 81% of towns
Where Wilmington ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 54 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,341 a month, better than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wilmington
A household needs to earn about $73,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wilmington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,484, 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 Wilmington's effective rate of 1.69%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wilmington
Wilmington runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wilmington.
Who works in Wilmington, and how
Work in Wilmington centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Wilmington
Wilmington has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 90% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wilmington and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wilmington, month by month
Wilmington sees roughly 54 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Wilmington
Chicago Midway International sits about 39 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wilmington
Schools across Wilmington average a C, better than 33% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coal City Intermediate SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- L J Stevens Intermediate SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Herscher Intermediate SchB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilmington Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Three Rivers SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Manhattan Jr High SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Lincoln-way Central High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Minooka Community High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Coal City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wilmington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wilmington 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 Wilmington against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wilmington
Is Wilmington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wilmington ranks 20,796th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, walkability, and cell coverage, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wilmington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $249,530. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $87,484 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Wilmington safe?
Yes, Wilmington is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $209 per resident a year.
Compare Wilmington with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wilmington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wilmington 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.
Wilmington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wilmington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wilmington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wilmington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wilmington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wilmington 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.