Ela TownshipIL
A town of 46,385, settled in 1852.
Is Ela Township a good place to live?
Few places in the country grade higher. Ela Township earns an A+, 34th of 767 graded towns in Illinois. Residents are healthier than 97% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates, the median household earns $174K, and its schools rank ahead of 95% of Illinois towns. The exception is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $539K, 5.9 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. 67% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Ela Township, where Illinois’ towns sit at 29% and U.S. towns at 29%. On hazard risk, just 121 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns do better. Ela Township is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns.
What makes Ela Township stand out
Where Ela Township beats most towns.
How Ela Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Ela Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Wrigley Field and 152 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Ela Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw27 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw14 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great America3.0M visitors a year
Big draw37 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
16 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate Arena
Big draw34 mi Stadium & arenaRate FieldPhoto credits
Wrigley Field: Ryan Dickey, CC BY 2.0 · Soldier Field: Photo by Joon Han Contact: [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0 · Six Flags Great America: Feather Better, CC BY 4.0 · Barack Obama Presidential Center: AlphaBeta135, CC0 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rate Field: User Enoch Lai on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Moving to Ela Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Ela 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 Ela Township.
Ela Township has schools in the top 5% of Illinois, trades workers with Chicago and other neighbors and has less food insecurity than most of Illinois.
Fewer of Ela Township’s adults feel lonely than in the typical Illinois or U.S. town
Its widest gap with Illinois is food insecurity: 7.1% of its 33,464 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.9% statewide. Against the 1,559 U.S. towns with household incomes like Ela Township’s, it is healthier than 74%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
28% of adults feel lonely in Ela Township. Ela Township beats the Illinois average on 22 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 12% of adults report frequent mental distress in Ela Township.
| Ela Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 17% | 17% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.4% | 13% | 14% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 33% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 23% | 25% |
| What stands out | Ela Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.1% | 15.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.8% | 9.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
For schools, Ela Township earns an A+
Its A+ ranks #20 of the 768 Illinois towns we grade for schools. Its A+ for schools comes with a D for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $539K.
Its public schools are run by Lake Zurich CUSD 95. Three of its 16 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Zurich Middle - N CampusLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 697 | A |
| Lake Zurich High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,839 | A+ |
| Woodlawn Middle SchoolTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 632 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
7.8% of Ela Township is conserved land
25 miles of trail in 38 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Cuba Marsh Forest Preserve, at 748 acres. The trail density in Ela Township is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Ela Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 7.8% | 3.6% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Reed Turner Woodland | 1.1 mi | 21 |
| 2. Paulus Park | 1 mi | 30 |
| 3. Bridlewoods Park | 0.6 mi | 12 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Low risk in Ela Township, with inland flooding at the top
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 76% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 22 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Ela Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Snowy winters and pleasant summers in Ela Township
Ela Township has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. Ela Township’s July high is 83°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
About one in ten working residents works right in Ela Township
Ela Township has about as many jobs (22,845) as working residents, but only 2,175 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 17,059 in 2013 to 22,845.
Most working residents leave Ela Township for work: only 10% work in town. 25% of Ela Township workers work from home. Since 2013, Ela Township has added 5,786 jobs, to 22,845 in 2023.
| Ela Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $174,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 25% | 11% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 2.7% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Everything we know about Ela Township
Colleges nearby
9 within 15 miles of the center of Ela Township
About 5 of every 100 Ela Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
About Ela Township
Township in Illinois, United States
Ela Township is a township in Lake County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 45,287.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 36 sq mi
- Elevation
- 830 ft
Ela Township’s neighbors
8 towns share a border with Ela Township.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ela Township | #34 | A+ | D | — | A+ | A+ |
| Cuba Township | #171 | A | D | — | A | A+ |
| Fremont Township | #173 | A− | C− | — | A− | A |
| Hawthorn Woods | #2 | A+ | C | A+ | A | A+ |
| Barrington | #16 | A+ | C− | A− | A | A+ |
| Deer Park | #62 | A | D | — | A | A+ |
| Vernon Township | #36 | A+ | D | — | A+ | A+ |
| North Barrington | #83 | A | D | — | A | A+ |
Ela Township, Cuba Township, Fremont Township, Deer Park, Vernon Township and North Barrington report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Ela Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Ela Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Ela Township, IL a good place to live?
Yes, by almost any measure. Ela Township grades A+ overall, better than 97% of U.S. towns and #34 of 767 in Illinois. It grades A+ for health and A+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Ela Township, IL expensive?
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.