Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 13,829, settled in 1907.
Forest Park's standout: few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. Overall it grades C, ranked 593rd of 767 in Illinois. It is healthier than 88% of U.S. towns. Its weakest subject is safety: it reports more crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, including 33 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Forest Park’s property crime rate is 29.5 per 1,000 residents, above both Illinois’ towns (7.9) and U.S. towns (9.9). The biggest park or preserve is Forest Park, at 20 acres.
Where Forest Park beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Forest Park is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for safety (better than 13%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 923 in 1880, 14,339 in 2020. The archive holds 24 old photos and papers going back to 1901 and 7 maps from 1891 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Forest Park. Close and well known come first.
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw13 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw7 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw10 mi MuseumArt Institute of Chicago1.5M visitors a yearSoldier Field: Photo by Joon Han Contact: [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wrigley Field: Ryan Dickey, CC BY 2.0 · Barack Obama Presidential Center: AlphaBeta135, CC0 · United Center: User:JeremyA, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Rate Field: User Enoch Lai on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Art Institute of Chicago: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Forest Park, 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Forest Park.
Forest Park has seen reported crime fall beyond ordinary swings and has added a third more jobs in ten years.
10% of adults report frequent physical distress in Forest Park. Forest Park beats the Illinois average on 14 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 9.8% of adults smoke cigarettes in Forest Park.
| Forest Park | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 13% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.8% | 13% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 37% | 35% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| What stands out | Forest Park | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.7% | 10.3% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.7% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Reported crimes fell from 486 to 439 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Forest Park’s violent crime rate is 2.4 per 1,000 residents. Forest Park reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 87% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Forest Park has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 17° and about 42 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 65% of U.S. communities. Since 1980, 4 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Forest Park.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Jobs based here grew from 5,991 in 2013 to 8,674. 24.2% of workers work from home, against 15.9% across Illinois.
Most working residents leave Forest Park for work: only 5% work in town. Since 2013, Forest Park has added 2,683 jobs, to 8,674 in 2023. 12% of Forest Park residents live below the poverty line.
| Forest Park | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.1% | 8.4% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The typical Forest Park home is worth about $289,000, up 6.8% in a year, close to the Illinois typical home. The median rent in Forest Park is $1,367 a month.
| Forest Park | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 53% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,367 a month | $1,128 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
0.3 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves.
| Forest Park | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.2% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Forest Park | 0.1 mi | 20 |
| 2. Reiger Park | 0.1 mi | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
59 within 15 miles of the center of Forest Park
About 8 of every 100 Forest Park residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
4 notable people were born in Forest Park.
Village in Illinois, United States
Forest Park (formerly Harlem) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 14,339 at the 2020 census. The Forest Park terminal on the CTA Blue Line is the line's western terminus, located on the Eisenhower Expressway at Des Plaines Avenue. This makes it one of just two municipalities served by the Chicago "L" train network that does not directly border Chicago (the other being Wilmette).
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Forest Park.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Park | #593 | C | C− | D | C+ | A |
| Maywood | #714 | D | C | — | C− | C− |
| River Forest · River Forest Township | #241 | A− | D | C+ | A+ | A+ |
| Proviso Township | #512 | C+ | C | — | C | B+ |
| North Riverside | #439 | B | C | D | A | B+ |
Maywood and Proviso Township report no FBI crime data of their own. River Forest Township and River Forest are one community, graded once. Compare Forest Park with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Forest Park grades C overall, better than 30% of U.S. towns and #593 of 767 in Illinois. It grades A for health, D for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. That is 3.2 years of the area's median household income ($90,887 across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
4 notable people were born here, including Bill Idelson and Calvin Sutker.
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