Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Hillside's standout: it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 96% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C+, 559th among Illinois's 767 graded towns. The median household earns $72K. Hillside’s property crime rate is 20.5 per 1,000 residents, where Illinois’ towns sit at 7.9 and U.S. towns at 9.9. Hillside's schools rank behind 68% of the state's.
Where Hillside beats most towns.
Where Hillside’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Hillside is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 328 in 1910, 8,320 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1975 and 8 maps from 1891 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hillside. Close and well known come first.
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw14 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw17 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw14 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw14 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 · Rate Field: User Enoch Lai on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · United Center: User:JeremyA, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Art Institute of Chicago: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hillside, 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 Hillside.
Hillside draws workers from Chicago and beyond, but it reports more crime than Bellwood and its other graded neighbors.
6,967 jobs are based in Hillside, 1.9 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Hillside for work: only 4% work in town. 19% of Hillside workers work from home. Jobs based in Hillside grew to 6,967 in 2023, 1,463 more than in 2013.
| Hillside | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 19% | 11% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.7% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.6% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Hillside | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.6% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Eisenhower Park | 0.1 mi | 13 |
| 2. Hillside Commons | 0.1 mi | 13 |
| 3. Old Schoolhouse Community Garden | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Each of the 3 graded towns on its borders reports less crime per resident, from Bellwood (C+) to Westchester (A).
The violent crime rate in Hillside is 2 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Hillside 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
Hillside beats the Illinois average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 17% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Hillside.
| Hillside | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 22% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 13% | 14% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 33% |
| What stands out | Hillside | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.8% | 7.6% |
| Fewer adults with depression | 17.1% | 19.8% |
| More adults facing housing insecurity | 20.2% | 13.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 51% of U.S. communities. Since 2013, 7 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Hillside.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Hillside home is worth about $293,000, up 8.6% in a year, close to the Illinois typical home. Hillside’s median rent is $1,320 a month.
| Hillside | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 65% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,320 a month | $1,128 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
50 within 15 miles of the center of Hillside
About 8 of every 100 Hillside residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
3 notable people were born in Hillside.
Village in Illinois, United States
Hillside is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 8,320. It is a suburb on the west side of Chicago.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Hillside.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillside | #559 | C+ | C | C | C | B |
| Bellwood | #682 | C− | C | C+ | D | C+ |
| Berkeley | #561 | C+ | C− | B+ | C− | B |
| Westchester | #264 | A− | C− | A | C+ | A |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Hillside grades C+ overall, better than 36% of U.S. towns and #559 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B for health, C for safety and C for schools.
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.
3 notable people were born here, including Scottie Lindsey and James C. Card.
_-_Chicago,_IL_-_June_2026.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}