Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,448, settled in 1833.
Mount Sterling Township gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $144K for a typical one, or 2.1 years of the county’s $68K median household income. It grades B overall, 396th among Illinois's 767 graded towns. On the plus side, it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. 38% of working residents work locally in Mount Sterling Township, above both Illinois’ towns (8.3%) and U.S. towns (8%). Only 59 of Illinois’ 1,240 towns score higher on civic life.
Where Mount Sterling Township beats most towns.
Where Mount Sterling 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 Mount Sterling Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 556 in 1850, 2,006 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1869 and 2 maps from 1980 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Mount Sterling 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 Mount Sterling Township.
Mount Sterling Township draws workers from Beardstown and beyond, but it has little public open land.
4,519 jobs are based in Mount Sterling Township, 3.1 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 13.3 minutes, against 27.8 across Illinois.
About one in 3 of Mount Sterling Township’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Mount Sterling Township is 13 minutes. Since 2013, Mount Sterling Township has added 3,045 jobs, to 4,519 in 2023.
| Mount Sterling Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 13 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $65,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by Brown County CUSD 1. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown County Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–4 | Grades PK–4 | 270 | B |
| Brown County High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 224 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
Mount Sterling Township beats the Illinois average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 21. 42% of Mount Sterling Township adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Mount Sterling Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 35% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 13% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 37% | 35% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Mount Sterling Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.9% | 7.6% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 18.1% | 10.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Mount Sterling Township has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 18° and about 14 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 56% of U.S. communities. Since 1982, 27 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Mount Sterling Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Just 104 of its 23,705 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Mount Sterling Township itself; its outdoors grade is C−.
0.4 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Frisbee Golf Course | — | 5 |
| 2. Clark Park | — | 4 |
| 3. Brown County Elementary Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Mount Sterling Township; the nearest are
About 4 of every 100 Mount Sterling Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
City in Illinois, United States
Mount Sterling is a city in and the county seat of Brown County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,006 at the 2020 census. Foodservice distributor Dot Foods is based in Mount Sterling.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Mount Sterling Township.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Sterling Township | #396 | B | A− | — | B− | C |
| Lee Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Elkhorn Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Missouri Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cooperstown Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Mount Sterling Township reports no FBI crime data of its own. Lee Township, Elkhorn Township, Missouri Township and Cooperstown Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Mount Sterling Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Mount Sterling Township grades B overall, better than 60% of U.S. towns and #396 of 767 in Illinois. It grades C for health and B− for schools.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.