Illinois is Ranked as One of the Best Places to Raise a Family in 2025
Choosing the perfect place to raise a family is a huge decision. Wouldn't it be nice to know which states were the best (or worse) places for that? Well, ask you and you shall receive. WalletHub released its report of the Best & Worst States to Raise a Family in 2025, which not only includes the rankings but also the data that backs up their findings.
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To help people find cities with the perfect combination of those factors, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 50 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set includes factors like the median annual family income, housing affordability, health care quality, crime rate, and school quality.
Illinois is a Top 10 Best State to Raise a Family
Once the data was collected and the numbers were crunched, the Land of Lincoln wound up ranking the 7th best place in the country to raise a family in 2025. The ranking was based on how Illinois performed in these categories:
- Family Fun - ranked 2nd
- Health & Safety - ranked 30th
- Education & Child Care - ranked 11th
- Affordability - ranked 12th
- Socioeconomics - ranked 45th
- Illinois also has the country's 3rd highest median family income.
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Which state was at the top of the list, and which one was at the very bottom? Where does your state rank? You can scroll over the map below to see the rest of the rankings, and see all of the data in the full report here.