Capital TownshipIL
A regional job hub with 99,464 jobs.
What is it like to live in Capital Township?
For a city of 111,143, Capital Township does unevenly: it grades C, 580th among Illinois's 767 graded towns. It is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns. The trade-off: its schools rank behind 84% of the state's. 62% of working residents work locally in Capital Township, above both Illinois’ towns (8.3%) and U.S. towns (8%). The biggest place to walk is Gurgens Park, 410 acres with 3.5 miles of trail.
What makes Capital Township stand out
Where Capital Township beats most towns.
Jobs vs. working residents
Every workday, about 71,201 people come to Capital Township for work
Where Capital Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Capital Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Capital Township is from typical.
Its best grade is an A for history, which describes the town but isn’t part of the overall grade; its C comes from the livability subjects above.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Lincoln Tomb and 11 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Capital Township. Close and well known come first.
Big drawin town LandmarkLincoln Tomb
in town National Historic SiteLincoln Home National Historic Site124K visitors a yearin town National MonumentSpringfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument
in town MuseumOld State Capitol State Historic Site
16 mi MuseumLincoln's New Salem
in town MuseumIllinois State MuseumPhoto credits
Lincoln Tomb: David Jones, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Lincoln Home National Historic Site: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Old State Capitol State Historic Site: Shadow2700 at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Lincoln's New Salem: Unknown, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Illinois State Museum: Mike Linksvayer from Oakland, California, CC0
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Moving to Capital Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Capital Township, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Capital Township.
Capital Township draws workers from Springfield and beyond and is healthier than towns with similar incomes.
About two in three of Capital Township’s working residents commute to Springfield
99,464 jobs are based in Capital Township, 2.2 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 17.4 minutes, against 27.8 across Illinois.
The average trip to work in Capital Township is 17 minutes. The top destinations are Springfield (63%), Chicago (2%) and Decatur (1%). The median household income in Capital Township is $66,000.
| Capital Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $66,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 14% | 11% | 11% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Capital Township’s grade for schools is a C−
Its public schools are run by Springfield SD 186. Three of its 49 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Franklin Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 709 | B |
| Springfield High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,308 | A |
| Iles Elem SchoolTop results in townGrades 1–8 | Grades 1–8 | 414 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
5.6% of Capital Township is conserved land
46 miles of trail in 54 parks and preserves. Capital Township’s trail density is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Capital Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 5.6% | 3.6% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Carpenter Park | 6.9 mi | 336 |
| 2. Lincoln Memorial Garden and Trails | 4.2 mi | 106 |
| 3. Gurgens Park | 3.5 mi | 410 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
In Capital Township, expect four seasons and pleasant summers
Capital Township has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 19° and about 22 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Capital Township faces a moderate natural-hazard risk, led by inland flooding
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 60% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 51 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Capital Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
An age mix much like Illinois’s
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Illinois average. 36% of Capital Township adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Capital Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 36% | 29% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 21% | 22% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 20% | 19% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
51.7% women, 48.3% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Illinois, 50.6% of residents are women. Median age: women 42.9, men 39.1.
| Capital Township | IL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.3% | 11.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.5% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8.7% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.9% | 13.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.5% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.9% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.3% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 11.7% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.2% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 6.7% | 9.5% | 10.4% |
| High school | 27.7% | 25.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.3% | 19.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.9% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 20.7% | 22.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 15.6% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Residents of Capital Township are healthier than 50% of U.S. towns
Against the 10,080 U.S. towns with household incomes like Capital Township’s, it is healthier than 68%, so its B− isn’t only a matter of income.
Capital Township beats the Illinois average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 40% of adults have obesity in Capital Township.
| Capital Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 37% | 35% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 35% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 11% | 12% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 22% | 23% |
| What stands out | Capital Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.6% | 9.9% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 13.3% | 10.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Everything we know about Capital Township
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Capital Township
About 5 of every 100 Capital Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
Capital Township’s neighbors
10 towns share a border with Capital Township.
Springfield Township next door grades lower for schools (D− to Capital Township’s C−) and higher for cost of living (A to B).
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Township | #580 | C | B | — | C− | B− |
| Springfield | #702 | D | B | D− | C− | C+ |
| Springfield Township | #609 | C | A | — | D− | C+ |
| Curran Township | — | — | C+ | — | B− | A− |
| Ball Township | #145 | A | B− | — | A− | B+ |
| Gardner Township | #274 | A− | B | — | B | A− |
| Woodside Township | #372 | B | B+ | — | C− | B+ |
| Rochester Township | #330 | B+ | C+ | — | B | A |
Curran Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Capital Township, Springfield Township, Curran Township, Ball Township, Gardner Township, Woodside Township and Rochester Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Capital Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Capital Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Capital Township, IL a good place to live?
Capital Township grades C overall, better than 32% of U.S. towns and #580 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B− for health and C− for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Capital Township, IL expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.