Illinois cities compared
All 9 Illinois metropolitan areas on the same $100,000 salary and the same $400,000 home. Davenport leaves you $10,971 a year better off than Chicago — and none of it is income tax, which is identical everywhere in the state.
Davenport to Chicago: $10,971 a year apart, same tax code
Illinois has 9 metropolitan areas with a published price index, and on $100,000 with a $400,000 home they are not interchangeable: $74,941 of purchasing power in Davenport against $63,970 in Chicago — $10,971 a year, 11.0% of the salary, without leaving the state.
That gap is unusually easy to trust, because the income tax is identical in every row. Federal $13,170, FICA $7,650, Illinois state income tax $4,805, and no county or city in Illinois levies its own. Two things move down this table and only two: what a house costs in property tax, and what everything costs at the till.
| Metropolitan area | Buys | Behind the best | Prices | Property tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Davenport-Moline-Rock Island | $74,941 | best | 89.079 | 1.90% |
| 2Decatur | $74,605 | −$335 | 88.422 | 2.10% |
| 3Peoria | $71,999 | −$2,942 | 91.231 | 2.17% |
| 4Springfield | $71,744 | −$3,197 | 92.745 | 1.96% |
| 5Champaign-Urbana | $71,391 | −$3,550 | 92.704 | 2.05% |
| 6Rockford | $70,061 | −$4,879 | 92.154 | 2.45% |
| 7Bloomington | $69,803 | −$5,138 | 93.537 | 2.27% |
| 8Kankakee | $67,939 | −$7,001 | 96.394 | 2.22% |
| 9Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | $63,970 | −$10,971 | 103.595 | 2.03% |
Purchasing power on a $100,000 salary with a $400,000 home: take-home after federal, FICA, Illinois income tax and property tax, divided by that area’s price level. The income tax is identical in every row — the whole of the spread is property tax and the price level. Price index 100 is the US average.
1 of the 9 price above the national average and 8 below it — inside one state, under one tax code. A single state-level cost of living number averages that away and tells you about none of them.
Property tax runs from 1.90% in Davenport to 2.45% in Rockford — on a $400,000 home that is $7,618 against $9,810 a year, a difference of $2,192. Each rate is that area's counties averaged and weighted by how many homes are in each, because a house pays the tax and a rural county of a few thousand homes should not weigh the same as an urban one of several hundred thousand.
The 36 Illinois comparisons, resolved
Every pair of Illinois cities, each on its own page with the full working, the break-even salary and the property tax bill house by house. Ordered by the population that could plausibly be choosing between them:
Chicago vs Davenport — Davenport by $10,971 a year. Price level 103.595 against 89.079; property tax 2.03% against 1.90%.
Chicago vs Peoria — Peoria by $8,029 a year. Price level 103.595 against 91.231; property tax 2.03% against 2.17%.
Chicago vs Rockford — Rockford by $6,092 a year. Price level 103.595 against 92.154; property tax 2.03% against 2.45%.
Champaign vs Chicago — Champaign by $7,421 a year. Price level 92.704 against 103.595; property tax 2.05% against 2.03%.
Chicago vs Springfield — Springfield by $7,774 a year. Price level 103.595 against 92.745; property tax 2.03% against 1.96%.
Bloomington vs Chicago — Bloomington by $5,833 a year. Price level 93.537 against 103.595; property tax 2.27% against 2.03%.
Chicago vs Kankakee — Kankakee by $3,970 a year. Price level 103.595 against 96.394; property tax 2.03% against 2.22%.
Chicago vs Decatur — Decatur by $10,636 a year. Price level 103.595 against 88.422; property tax 2.03% against 2.10%.
Davenport vs Peoria — Davenport by $2,942 a year. Price level 89.079 against 91.231; property tax 1.90% against 2.17%.
Davenport vs Rockford — Davenport by $4,879 a year. Price level 89.079 against 92.154; property tax 1.90% against 2.45%.
Peoria vs Rockford — Peoria by $1,937 a year. Price level 91.231 against 92.154; property tax 2.17% against 2.45%.
Champaign vs Davenport — Davenport by $3,550 a year. Price level 92.704 against 89.079; property tax 2.05% against 1.90%.
Champaign vs Peoria — Peoria by $608 a year. Price level 92.704 against 91.231; property tax 2.05% against 2.17%.
Davenport vs Springfield — Davenport by $3,197 a year. Price level 89.079 against 92.745; property tax 1.90% against 1.96%.
Peoria vs Springfield — Peoria by $255 a year. Price level 91.231 against 92.745; property tax 2.17% against 1.96%.
Champaign vs Rockford — Champaign by $1,330 a year. Price level 92.704 against 92.154; property tax 2.05% against 2.45%.
Bloomington vs Davenport — Davenport by $5,138 a year. Price level 93.537 against 89.079; property tax 2.27% against 1.90%.
Rockford vs Springfield — Springfield by $1,682 a year. Price level 92.154 against 92.745; property tax 2.45% against 1.96%.
Bloomington vs Peoria — Peoria by $2,196 a year. Price level 93.537 against 91.231; property tax 2.27% against 2.17%.
Bloomington vs Rockford — Rockford by $258 a year. Price level 93.537 against 92.154; property tax 2.27% against 2.45%.
Davenport vs Kankakee — Davenport by $7,001 a year. Price level 89.079 against 96.394; property tax 1.90% against 2.22%.
Davenport vs Decatur — Davenport by $335 a year. Price level 89.079 against 88.422; property tax 1.90% against 2.10%.
Kankakee vs Peoria — Peoria by $4,059 a year. Price level 96.394 against 91.231; property tax 2.22% against 2.17%.
Decatur vs Peoria — Decatur by $2,607 a year. Price level 88.422 against 91.231; property tax 2.10% against 2.17%.
And 12 more pairs of Illinois cities, each with its own page.
Every Illinois city, and what it can be compared with
The areas themselves, largest first. Each line has what defines that city on the two measures that matter here, and then every comparison it takes part in:
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin — 9.4m people across 13 counties. Price level 103.595, housing 112.01, property tax 2.03%. Compared with Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island — 382k people across 4 counties. Price level 89.079, housing 68.346, property tax 1.90%. Compared with Chicago, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Peoria — 366k people across 5 counties. Price level 91.231, housing 63.763, property tax 2.17%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Rockford — 337k people across 2 counties. Price level 92.154, housing 70.076, property tax 2.45%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Champaign-Urbana — 236k people across 3 counties. Price level 92.704, housing 71.604, property tax 2.05%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Springfield — 207k people across 2 counties. Price level 92.745, housing 71.616, property tax 1.96%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Bloomington, Kankakee, Decatur.
Bloomington — 171k people across 1 county. Price level 93.537, housing 74.715, property tax 2.27%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Kankakee, Decatur.
Kankakee — 107k people across 1 county. Price level 96.394, housing 92.856, property tax 2.22%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Decatur.
Decatur — 103k people across 1 county. Price level 88.422, housing 56.186, property tax 2.10%. Compared with Chicago, Davenport, Peoria, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, Kankakee.
The counties behind each rate
Nobody pays a metropolitan area's property tax rate. They pay their county's, and the figures above are those county rates averaged and weighted by how many homes each county holds. Opened up:
Chicago averages 2.03% across 13 counties: Cook County 1.98%, DuPage County 2.09%, Lake County 2.68%, Will County 2.35%, Lake County 0.93%, Kane County 2.39%, McHenry County 2.49%, Porter County 0.83%, and 5 more. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.49% in Jasper County to 2.68% in Lake County, which is $8,755 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Davenport averages 1.90% across 4 counties: Scott County 1.52%, Rock Island County 2.33%, Henry County 1.98%, Mercer County 1.95%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.52% in Scott County to 2.33% in Rock Island County, which is $3,258 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Peoria averages 2.17% across 5 counties: Peoria County 2.24%, Tazewell County 2.12%, Woodford County 2.18%, Marshall County 1.99%, Stark County 1.64%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.64% in Stark County to 2.24% in Peoria County, which is $2,384 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Rockford averages 2.45% across 2 counties: Winnebago County 2.48%, Boone County 2.27%. Inside the area the rate runs from 2.27% in Boone County to 2.48% in Winnebago County, which is $852 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Champaign averages 2.05% across 3 counties: Champaign County 2.07%, Piatt County 1.76%, Ford County 2.07%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.76% in Piatt County to 2.07% in Champaign County, which is $1,258 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Springfield averages 1.96% across 2 counties: Sangamon County 1.98%, Menard County 1.64%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.64% in Menard County to 1.98% in Sangamon County, which is $1,363 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Bloomington averages 2.27% across 1 county: McLean County 2.27%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.
Kankakee averages 2.22% across 1 county: Kankakee County 2.22%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.
Decatur averages 2.10% across 1 county: Macon County 2.10%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.
Which is the limitation of every figure on this page, stated rather than buried: an area rate is an average, and your address decides what you actually pay. The county pages linked above carry the rate, the assessment basis and the source for each one.
Where Illinois cities sit among the 380 in the country
A state ranking answers "where in Illinois". It does not answer whether Illinois is an expensive place to begin with, and the two questions have different answers often enough to be worth separating.
Against all 380 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices, Chicago ranks 39 and Decatur ranks 319, counting from the most expensive. The national median area sits at 93.492 — Monroe — so 3 of these 9 Illinois areas are dearer than the typical American metropolitan area and 6 are cheaper.
Chicago is in the most expensive tenth of the country, which is worth knowing before reading its position in the state table as merely "the dear one".
The distinction matters for a specific reason. Everything on this page holds the income tax constant because these cities share a state; the moment a move crosses a state line that stops being true, and the comparison becomes the harder one — which is what Illinois against every other state is for.
The tax that is the same in all 9
Worth spelling out, because it is what makes the ranking above readable at all. On $100,000, in every one of these areas:
Federal income tax — $13,170. Set by Congress, identical everywhere in the United States.
Social Security and Medicare — $7,650. Also federal, and also flat across the country up to the Social Security ceiling.
Illinois income tax — $4,805. One set of brackets for the whole state, one standard deduction, applied identically in every city on this page.
Local income tax — $0. Illinois does not permit counties, cities or school districts to levy their own. That is not a modelling shortcut, it is the law, and it is the condition on which these pages get published: in the eleven states that do permit it, the levying jurisdictions do not line up with metropolitan areas and no honest rate can be assigned.
Which leaves property tax as the only tax in the whole comparison that moves — from $7,618 to $9,810 a year on the same $400,000 home — and the price level as the only other thing. Two variables, both measured, both sourced. It is as clean as a cost-of-living comparison gets.
The top of this table changes depending on whether you buy
A ranking built on one salary and one house value is worth exactly as much as its assumptions, so here are the same 9 areas resolved again with those assumptions changed.
Renting, with no property tax at all: Decatur moves to the top, ahead of Davenport. Property tax is what was holding the order in place, which means a renter and a buyer looking at the same two cities should reach different answers.
On $60,000 instead of $100,000: Davenport still leads. The gap narrows to $6,754 — smaller in dollars, but a larger share of a smaller salary.
On $250,000: Decatur leads. At this income the property tax on a $400,000 home is close to noise and the price level decides everything.
This is the same discipline applied to a single published figure elsewhere on this site: a number without its range is half a number. Every page linked above lets you set your own salary, your own house and your own horizon, and recomputes the whole comparison rather than scaling it.
How this is worked out, and what it does not claim
Every row is the same calculation: gross salary in, federal income tax and FICA out, Illinois income tax out, property tax on a $400,000 home out — then what is left divided by that area's price level, so the figure is what the money buys rather than what the payslip says.
The price index is the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity, 2024, published per metropolitan area with a documented method and broken into housing, goods, utilities and services. Which counties make up each area comes from the Census Bureau delineation file, joined by CBSA code and never by name — there are thirty "Washington County" in the United States and a join on names would have failed silently.
US Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area, 2024 (released 19 February 2026) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area
US Census Bureau — Core Based Statistical Areas delineation file, 2023 (which counties form each metropolitan area) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/demo/metro-micro/delineation-files.html
US Census Bureau, American Community Survey — county effective property tax rates and housing units — read 2026-08-31. https://data.census.gov/
What it does not claim: that the city at the top is the better place to live. This measures what a salary buys. Schools, the commute, the weather and how far you are from your family are not in it, and on a move inside one state they are usually what actually decides it.
It also assumes one salary, one house value and a buyer rather than a renter. Every page linked above lets you change all three, and the answer moves with them — on some pairs enough to change which city comes out ahead.
Where to go next
Questions
- Which city in Illinois leaves you best off?
- Davenport, at $74,941 of purchasing power on $100,000 with a $400,000 home — $10,971 a year more than Chicago at the other end of the table. Because the income tax is identical everywhere in Illinois, that ranking is made of two things only: the price level and property tax.
- Which is the cheapest city in Illinois?
- Decatur, at 88.422 on the Bureau of Economic Analysis price index where 100 is the US average, against 103.595 in Chicago. Cheapest is not the same as best off, though: property tax is set separately and can move a household by $302 a year on the same house.
- Does income tax differ between cities in Illinois?
- No. Illinois sets one set of brackets for the whole state, and it does not let counties or cities levy their own income tax. On $100,000 the bill is federal $13,170, FICA $7,650 and state $4,805 in every one of these 9 areas. That is what makes comparing them clean.
- How much does cost of living vary inside Illinois?
- From 88.422 to 103.595 on the price index — 15.2 points between Decatur and Chicago. In take-home terms that is $10,971 a year of purchasing power on the same salary.
- How many Illinois city comparisons are there?
- 36, one page each, every pair of the 9 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices in Illinois. Each resolves the same way — income tax, property tax and price level — and each shows the break-even salary in both directions.