Forest LakeIL
A town of 1,865, settled in 1935.
Is Forest Lake a good place to live?
Forest Lake’s best subject grades are an A+ for health and an A for schools and incomes; its weakest is a C− for cost of living. On health, just 45 of Illinois’ 1,284 towns do better. Only 89 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns score lower on history. Forest Lake has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Forest Lake stand out
Where Forest Lake beats most towns.
100% of working residents leave Forest Lake for work
Where Forest Lake’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Forest Lake grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Forest Lake is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Wrigley Field and 151 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Forest Lake. Close and well known come first.
Big draw27 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw12 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great America3.0M visitors a year
Big draw38 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw34 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
17 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate ArenaPhoto 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 · Rate Field: User Enoch Lai on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Moving to Forest Lake: who provides what
Forest Lake is unincorporated, so Lake County and regional agencies provide most services.
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 Forest Lake.
A smaller share of adults sleep under 7 hours in Forest Lake than in most of Illinois or the rest of the country
28% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Forest Lake, against 35% in Illinois’ towns and 36% across U.S. towns. 14% of adults get no exercise outside work in Forest Lake. Forest Lake beats the Illinois average on 21 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Forest Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 35% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 33% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 17% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 23% | 25% |
| What stands out | Forest Lake | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.8% | 15.9% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 6.4% | 13.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
More of Forest Lake’s households own their home than in the typical Illinois or U.S. town
96% of households own their home in Forest Lake, above both Illinois’ towns (75%) and U.S. towns (73%). Typical home values rose 7.1% in the year to September 2026.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Very low risk in Forest Lake, with inland flooding at the top
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 83% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Forest Lake’s workers commute out
Most working residents leave Forest Lake for work: only 0% work in town. Forest Lake’s average trip to work is 33 minutes. Jobs based in Forest Lake fell to 88 in 2023, 284 fewer than in 2013.
| Forest Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.1% | 8.3% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 4% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $96,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Snowy winters and pleasant summers in Forest Lake
Forest Lake has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. The July high in Forest Lake is 83°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Forest Lake has set aside 0% of its land for conservation
0.0 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Norman Field | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Forest Lake
Colleges nearby
8 within 15 miles of the center of Forest Lake
About 3 of every 100 Forest Lake residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
About Forest Lake
Census-designated place in Illinois, United States
Forest Lake is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Ela Township of Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is about 35 miles (56 km) northwest of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 1,784. The community was founded in 1935 as a vacation community for Chicago residents.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Established
- 1935
- Area
- 0.4 sq mi
- Elevation
- 797 ft
- Area code
- 847
Forest Lake’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Forest Lake.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Lake | — | — | C− | — | A | A+ |
| Hawthorn Woods | #2 | A+ | C | A+ | A | A+ |
| Kildeer | #59 | A | C− | A− | A+ | A+ |
Forest Lake has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Forest Lake reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Forest Lake with a neighbor →
Questions about Forest Lake
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Forest Lake, 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 C−.