Welcome To Illinois’ Smallest Town: Population 14 People (Or So)

I have a close friend who was born and raised in a very large city on the East Coast, and he has always held the position that big cities are superior in every way to the smaller towns, villages, and hamlets that dot the map in every state. He has often stated he'd rather die than live in someplace in the sticks where everybody knows everybody.

I feel quite a bit differently.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I'm from a small town, and depending on where you grew up, you might consider it an extremely small town. My hometown of Oregon, Illinois has a population of about 3,500 people, according to the current census numbers.

Oregon is just one of many small towns in our state, and its population of 3,500 would dwarf a whole bunch of them, like these Northern Illinois towns:

• Caledonia: 183
• Leaf River: 421
• Chemung: 791
• Forreston: 1,421
• Stillman Valley: 1,177
• New Milford: 1,272
• Durand: 1,465
• Stockton: 1,709
• Pecatonica: 2,141

However, even these towns have really big populations compared to Illinois' smallest (in terms of population) town.

You May Have Never Heard Of Valley City, Illinois But Then Again, With Just Over A Dozen Residents, Lots Of Illinoisans Have Never Heard Of It, Either

According to the latest Census figures, and backed up by WorldPopulationReview.com, Valley City is ranked at #1297, or dead last on the list of Illinois' cities and towns when it comes to population.

WorldPopulationReview.com:

Chicago is the most populous city in the state, posting an estimated 2.7 million people per 2017 estimates. This far exceeds the population of the second most populated city, Aurora, which has just over 200,000 people according to estimates.

The state has a total of seven cities with populations that exceed 100,000, and 192 cities with populations between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

As You Might Imagine, Valley City Does Not Take Up A Lot Of Geographical Space

For comparison, Chicago covers about 235 square miles. Rockford covers about 66 square miles. Even Oregon, Illinois covers nearly two square miles.

Valley City covers a bit less than half a square mile.

A-Z-Animals.com:

Although never a booming metropolis, Valley City was once a bit larger than its current size. However, flooding in December 2015 and January 2016 flooded many of the town’s streets. It’s unclear if there were many more residents, even at that time.

The entire town covers less than half of a square mile. With only four households, there isn’t a lot of space required. According to the census, there are three families represented in the four households.