Illinois’ 50 Safest Cities of 2021

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the seventh annual Safest Cities report.

1. Campton Hills
2. Hawthorn Woods
3. Inverness
4. Lindenhurst
5. Elburn
6. Orland Hills
7. Chester
8. Lake in the Hills
9. Gilberts
10. Huntley

See if your city made the full list.

Illinois residents were some of the most concerned folks in the country this year. The Land of Lincoln placed second nationwide for high daily concern and concern over violent crime, just behind New York in both cases.

Illinois also placed within the top ten most concerned states for property crime, package theft, gun violence, and police violence.

With all these worries, it’s not surprising that only 42% of Illinois residents feel safe in their state, compared to 55% nationally. And 64% say they feel daily concern for their safety.

Illinois saw high violent crime rates at 4.1 compared to 3.7 nationwide. But its property crime rates were several points below the rest of the US at 18.5 compared to 21.1 incidents per 1,000 people.

Daily concern shot up 36% since last year in Illinois with violent crime being Illinoisians’ biggest worry. And while our respondents had less personal experience with violent crime in the last year, we saw a significant increase in those who experienced gun violence first hand.

We asked Illinois residents which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Illinoisians are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

Violent crime rose slightly in the Land of Lincoln in the last year. And Illinois saw a higher violent crime rate this year than the national and regional average. Violent crime in Illinois made up 4.1% of the violent crime in the nation. 

• Aggravated assault was the most common violent crime in Illinois. It made up 62% of the violent crime in the state.
• Rape accounted for 22% of violent crime in the safest cities, higher than that in the state (11%) and nation (8%). 
• From Illinois residents we surveyed, 83% said that gun violence is a general fear of theirs—30 percentage points higher than the 53% national average. And 50% said they were worried it might happen to them (US 38%). 
• 55% of Illinoisians say they’re concerned about police violence (US 40%). And 52% said they have confidence in law enforcement (US 56%).
• Mass shooting incidents in Illinois rose by 28 incidents in the last year for a total of 69 in the last twelve months. 
• Inverness saw zero reports of violent crime in the last twelve months. And 7 cities reported only 1 violent crime. 
• Despite Illinois’s high levels of safety concern, only 32% of respondents said they use personal protection like pepper spray or stun guns. 
• 55% of our survey respondents said their personal safety was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Property crime in Illinois and across the East North Central region dropped steadily since 2019. Since then, Illinois has also seen property crime rates below the national average. 

• Larceny-theft was the most common property crime in Illinois over the last year. There were over 180,000 cases reported, accounting for over three quarters of statewide property crime.
• Property crime in Illinois accounts for 3.4% of all US property crime.
• Campton Hills, the safest city in Illinois, was the only city to report under 10 incidents of property crime.
• Greenville saw the biggest improvement in property crime rates. The city dropped from 14.9 incidents per 1,000 people last year to 6.4 this year.
• In Illinois, 56% of residents use some form of protection for their property. Of that percentage, 32% chose security cameras to watch their homes.
• 37% of Illinois residents said the pandemic affected the safety of their property.

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• Campton Hills claims the top spot for the third year in a row, with a violent crime rate of just 0.1 and a 0.6 property crime rate.
• 8 of Illinois’s safest cities are newcomers this year: Hawthorn Woods, Inverness, Elburn, Orland Hills, Island Lake, Lake Forest, Glencoe, and Columbia.
• Greenville was the most improved this year, jumping 106 spots to number 39. The city dropped its property crime rate 8.5 incidents in the last 12 months. 
• Buffalo Grove dropped 29 spots this year from number 12 to number 41.
• All 50 cities had property and violent crime rates below the state and national average.

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. Learn more about your home security options—and find out which companies we recommend for every budget and lifestyle in our roundup of the Best Home Security Systems.

We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population. See how the remaining cities ranked in the list below.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2019.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

• Best Home Security Systems
• Best Home Security Cameras
• Best Video Doorbell Cameras
• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “2019 Crime in the United States,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed November 18, 2020.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 15, 2021.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.