Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Lyons's standout: it is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C, 618th among Illinois's 767 graded towns. Its weakest subject is hazard risk: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 80% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. On civic life, just 17 of Illinois’ 1,240 towns do worse. Lyons's public schools trail 86% of Illinois towns on state tests and graduation. Lyons has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Chicago Portage National Historic Site and Hofmann Tower.
Where Lyons beats most towns.
Where Lyons’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 Lyons is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 98% of comparable towns) to D for hazard risk (better than 14%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 486 in 1880, 10,817 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1917 and 8 maps from 1891 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Lyons. Close and well known come first.
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw12 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw9 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw11 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 Lyons, 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 Lyons.
Lyons is healthier than towns with similar incomes, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding).
Lyons’ trail density comes in at 0.9 miles per square mile. Trails total 2.0 miles in 10 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Ottawa Trail Woods South, at 99 acres.
| Lyons | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.9 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.2% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Chicago Portage National Historic Site | 0.6 mi | 40 |
| 2. Veterans Park | 0.6 mi | 13 |
| 3. Ottawa Trail Woods South | 0.1 mi | 99 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 92% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $604 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on. 69 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 16 properties have flooded more than once.
The national flood insurance program has paid 69 claims in Lyons since 1985. FEMA puts 58% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 23% to cold waves. Federal aid has come to Lyons households in 8 declared disasters; the latest was in 2024.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Half the trips to work are shorter than 10 miles. Among residents in Lyons, 14% live below the poverty line, above both Illinois’ towns (8.4%) and U.S. towns (9.6%). For most workers, Lyons is a place to come home to: only 4% work in town. In Lyons, the mean commuting time is 28 minutes.
| Lyons | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 14% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.9% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Median household income | $71,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
A winter brings about 42 inches of snow, with January nights at 17° and July afternoons at 84°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Against the 10,586 U.S. towns with household incomes like Lyons’s, it is healthier than 75%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income.
Among adults in Lyons, 22% worry about having enough food, above both the Illinois town median (13%) and the median of U.S. towns (14%). The town does better than the Illinois average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 9. 17% of Lyons adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| Lyons | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 13% | 14% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 35% | 35% |
| What stands out | Lyons | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.8% | 7.6% |
| Fewer adults with high blood pressure | 30% | 33% |
| More uninsured adults | 17.2% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
A home in Lyons typically sold within 60 days of listing. 64% of households are owner-occupiers locally. Bidding over the asking price: 29% of homes sold in the town.
| Lyons | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 64% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,198 a month | $1,128 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
56 within 15 miles of the center of Lyons
About 6 of every 100 Lyons residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
2 places in Lyons on the National Register of Historic Places.
Village in Illinois, United States
Lyons is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 10,817. The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is located in Lyons.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
8 towns share a border with Lyons.
Riverside Township next door grades higher for schools (A to Lyons’s D) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyons | #618 | C | C | — | D | B |
| McCook | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Riverside | #23 | A+ | C− | B+ | A | A+ |
| Lyons Township | #219 | A− | C− | — | A− | A |
| Riverside Township | #74 | A | D | — | A | A |
| Brookfield | #18 | A+ | C− | A | A | A |
| Summit | #672 | C− | C | C | C− | C |
| Forest View | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Lyons, Lyons Township and Riverside Township report no FBI crime data of their own. McCook and Forest View aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Lyons with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Lyons grades C overall, better than 26% of U.S. towns and #618 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B for health and D for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
The typical home is worth about $257,000, 13% below the Illinois typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
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