Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
McHenry Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, 452nd of 767 graded towns in Illinois, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 74% of the country. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $262K, 2.9 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. McHenry Township’s average commute is 31 minutes, where Illinois’ towns sit at 26 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes. Glacial Park Conservation Area, at 598 acres with 3.5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. McHenry Township is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 70% of U.S. towns.
Where McHenry Township beats most towns.
Where McHenry Township’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 McHenry Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 874 in 1880, 27,135 in 2020. The archive holds 8 old photos and papers going back to 2005 and 5 maps from 1926 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in McHenry 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.
Ordered by what stands out in McHenry Township.
Trails run 21 miles in 31 parks and preserves. The trail network density in McHenry Township is 0.4 miles per square mile.
| McHenry Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 4.7% | 3.6% | 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. Glacial Park Conservation Area | 3.5 mi | 598 |
| 2. Harrison Benwell Conservation Area | 1.3 mi | 79 |
| 3. Hiller Park | 0.5 mi | 18 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Of its 15 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. 6 public schools serve McHenry Township, with 2,744 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| McHenry Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 695 | B− |
| McHenry Community High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,214 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
In McHenry Township, 15% of workers work remotely from home. Only just over a tenth of working residents stay in McHenry Township for work; the rest commute out. The top destinations are McHenry (12%), Chicago (9%) and Crystal Lake (4%). For McHenry Township, the median household income is $95,000.
| McHenry Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 15% | 11% | 11% |
| Median household income | $95,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 12% | 8.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
CDC measures, 32 in all: McHenry Township beats Illinois on 5 and trails on 2. 31% of McHenry Township adults sleep under 7 hours. Among adults here, 19% binge drink and 33% have obesity.
| McHenry Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 35% | 36% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 16% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 37% | 35% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 23% | 25% |
| What stands out | McHenry Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11.7% | 15.9% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 10% | 13.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.7% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected losses in McHenry Township break down as 67% from inland flooding and 14% from cold waves. Its FEMA risk score is 71 of 100. 173 flood insurance claims have been paid here since 1978.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The range runs from 14° on a January night to 83° on a July afternoon, with about 35 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around McHenry Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw18 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great America3.0M visitors a year
32 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate Arena
16 mi MuseumIllinois Railway Museum
30 mi MuseumMcDonald's #1 Store Museum
27 mi TheatreAlpine Valley Music Theatre6 mi MuseumVolo Auto MuseumSix Flags Great America: Feather Better, CC BY 4.0 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Illinois Railway Museum: The original uploader was Slambo at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 · McDonald's #1 Store Museum: Bruce Marlin, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Alpine Valley Music Theatre: chad davis, CC BY-SA 2.0
2 within 15 miles of the center of McHenry Township
About 4 of every 100 McHenry Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
City in Illinois, United States
McHenry is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is located about 46 miles northwest of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 27,135. McHenry was at one time the county seat of McHenry County, which once included adjoining Lake County to the east. McHenry took its name from the county, which was named for Major William McHenry, a prominent US Army officer in the Black Hawk War. It rests at an elevation of 797 feet and the Fox River flows through the eastern portion of the city. It is surrounded by natural lakes and streams, grassy moraine hills, gravel banks and shallow nutrient-rich peat bogs, remnants of receding glaciers from the last ice age. Moraine Hills Sta…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with McHenry Township.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McHenry Township | #452 | B− | C | — | B− | B+ |
| Greenwood Township | #273 | A− | B− | — | A− | B+ |
| Nunda Township | #391 | B | C− | — | B | A− |
| Grant Township | #479 | B− | C | — | B− | B |
| Wauconda Township | #301 | B+ | C | — | B | A− |
| Bull Valley | — | — | C− | A+ | B+ | A− |
Bull Valley has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. McHenry Township, Greenwood Township, Nunda Township, Grant Township and Wauconda Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare McHenry Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
McHenry Township grades B− overall, better than 54% of U.S. towns and #452 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B+ for health and B− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
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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