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Data from U.S. Census Bureau · 2026 · Methodology
CitySpend

Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data

Illinois City Spending Rankings

Illinois has 29 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 5.1M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 68/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Illinois's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 68/100 (grade B). On the whole, Illinois cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.

View full data profile for Illinois →
Cities
29
Total Population
5.1M
Avg Fiscal Score
68/100
Total Police Spending
$249.3M

Illinois Fiscal Profile

Across all covered Illinois cities, the largest aggregate spending categories are fire protection at $29.7B and highways at $3.0B. That mix reflects Illinois's overall service-delivery model, in some states police and fire dominate; in others, education or roads take the largest aggregate share when cities operate their own school districts.

Healthiest and Most Stressed Cities

Top Fiscal Performers

Waukegan89K
A
Bolingbrook74K
A
Palatine67K
A
Aurora181K
A
Mount Prospect56K
A

Most Fiscally Stressed

Joliet150K
D
Orland Park58K
D
Naperville149K
D
Normal53K
D
Wheaton54K
C

All 29 Cities in Illinois

Chicago, IL

Pop. 2.7M

C
Total Spending
$94.0B
Per Capita
$34,551

Aurora, IL

Pop. 181K

A
Total Spending
$2.8B
Per Capita
$15,301

Joliet, IL

Pop. 150K

D
Total Spending
$2.8B
Per Capita
$18,675

Naperville, IL

Pop. 149K

D
Total Spending
$2.3B
Per Capita
$15,751

Rockford, IL

Pop. 148K

C
Total Spending
$2.9B
Per Capita
$19,348

Springfield, IL

Pop. 114K

B
Total Spending
$1.8B
Per Capita
$15,771

Elgin, IL

Pop. 114K

C
Total Spending
$1.6B
Per Capita
$14,229

Peoria, IL

Pop. 113K

B
Total Spending
$862.5M
Per Capita
$7,629

Waukegan, IL

Pop. 89K

A
Total Spending
$1.2B
Per Capita
$12,915

Champaign, IL

Pop. 89K

C
Total Spending
$1.3B
Per Capita
$15,173

Cicero, IL

Pop. 84K

B
Total Spending
$1.4B
Per Capita
$16,288

Bloomington, IL

Pop. 79K

B
Total Spending
$1.5B
Per Capita
$19,507

Schaumburg, IL

Pop. 78K

A
Total Spending
$1.7B
Per Capita
$21,319

Evanston, IL

Pop. 77K

A
Total Spending
$1.6B
Per Capita
$21,161

Arlington Heights, IL

Pop. 77K

B
Total Spending
$1.0B
Per Capita
$13,390

Bolingbrook, IL

Pop. 74K

A
Total Spending
$1.0B
Per Capita
$13,729

Decatur, IL

Pop. 71K

A
Total Spending
$1.1B
Per Capita
$15,270

Palatine, IL

Pop. 67K

A
Total Spending
$824.3M
Per Capita
$12,261

Skokie, IL

Pop. 67K

B
Total Spending
$1.1B
Per Capita
$17,022

Des Plaines, IL

Pop. 60K

C
Total Spending
$1.1B
Per Capita
$17,880

Orland Park, IL

Pop. 58K

D
Total Spending
$916.5M
Per Capita
$15,708

Oak Lawn, IL

Pop. 58K

C
Total Spending
$1.3B
Per Capita
$21,999

Berwyn, IL

Pop. 57K

B
Total Spending
$1.7B
Per Capita
$29,525

Mount Prospect, IL

Pop. 56K

A
Total Spending
$894.5M
Per Capita
$15,919

Tinley Park, IL

Pop. 56K

C

Oak Park, IL

Pop. 54K

B
Total Spending
$871.7M
Per Capita
$16,192

Wheaton, IL

Pop. 54K

C

Normal, IL

Pop. 53K

D
Total Spending
$901.1M
Per Capita
$17,027

Hoffman Estates, IL

Pop. 52K

A
Total Spending
$1.1B
Per Capita
$21,538

How These Rankings Are Calculated

City Fiscal Health Scores combine budget balance and reserves (25%), debt burden per capita (20%), pension funded ratio (20%), spending efficiency (15%), revenue diversity (10%), and three-year trend direction (10%). All inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district and county overlap. Pension data comes from the Public Plans Database. Best-practice weighting follows guidance from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Read the full methodology.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many cities in Illinois are covered by CitySpend?

CitySpend covers 29 cities in Illinois with 50,000 or more residents, totaling 5.1M in population. Smaller municipalities, towns, and unincorporated areas are excluded from the dataset.

What is Illinois's average Fiscal Health Score?

Illinois's 29 covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 68/100. The score combines budget balance and reserves, debt burden per capita, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and three-year trend direction. Each city is benchmarked against population peers, so a 200,000-resident city is compared to other mid-size cities, not against the largest cities in the country.

Where does Illinois city spending data come from?

Every figure on this page is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, with population estimates from the American Community Survey. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district overlap. Federal grant flows come from USASpending.gov; pension data, where available, comes from the Public Plans Database.

Which Illinois cities have the strongest fiscal health?

Waukegan (A), Bolingbrook (A), Palatine (A) rank among the top fiscal performers in Illinois. Strong scores typically pair balanced budgets with low debt-per-capita and well-funded pensions. See the rankings below for the full list.

Which Illinois cities are most fiscally stressed?

Joliet (D), Orland Park (D), Naperville (D) rank toward the bottom of the Illinois fiscal health distribution. Common stress signals include pension underfunding, elevated debt service, and revenue concentration in a single tax source. A low score is a screening signal, not a verdict, always read the city's audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (ACFR) before drawing conclusions.

Illinois has 29 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 5.1M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 68/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Illinois's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 68/100 (grade B). On the whole, Illinois cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.

For this entity, the underlying data on this page comes from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. The breakdown above is the federal record; the paragraphs below add the per-entity context that makes the headline numbers usable for a real decision rather than just a data lookup.

Every number on this page links back to the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.

For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. cities, counties, and states with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.