Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A regional job hub with 16,242 jobs.
Mount Vernon earns a D, 736th among Illinois's 767 graded towns, mostly because of schools and incomes. Its schools rank behind 90% of the state's. The median household income is $55K, and 17% of residents live below the poverty line. It also has a long history, with 1 places on the National Register. 47% of working residents work locally in Mount Vernon, where Illinois’ towns sit at 8.3% and U.S. towns at 8%. The biggest place to walk is Lincoln Park, 78 acres with 1.1 miles of trail.
Where Mount Vernon beats most towns.
Appellate Court, 5th DistrictWhere Mount Vernon’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 Vernon is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Its founding year, 1817, comes before those of 97% of the Illinois towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 707 in 1860, 14,600 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1854 and 3 maps from 1933 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Mount Vernon, 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 Vernon.
Mount Vernon draws workers from Mount Vernon Township and beyond, is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has property taxes about half the Illinois norm.
16,242 jobs are based in Mount Vernon, 2.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 14 minutes, against 27.8 across Illinois.
The average trip to work in Mount Vernon is 14 minutes. The top destinations are Marion (2%), Dodds Township (2%) and Salem (2%). 4% of Mount Vernon workers work from home.
| Mount Vernon | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 14 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 4% | 11% | 11% |
| Median household income | $55,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The median property tax bill is $2,271, against $5,298 across Illinois, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Mount Vernon home is worth about $138,000, up 7.4% in a year, 53% below the Illinois typical home. Mount Vernon’s median rent is $910 a month.
| Mount Vernon | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 53% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $910 a month | $1,129 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
8.9 miles of trail in 9 parks and preserves.
| Mount Vernon | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.2% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Veteran's Memorial Park | 1.2 mi | 41 |
| 2. Lincoln Park | 1.1 mi | 78 |
| 3. Goldman-Kuenz Sculpture Park at Cedarhurst | — | 62 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Against the 7,526 U.S. towns with household incomes like Mount Vernon’s, it is healthier than 52%, so its C isn’t only a matter of income.
Mount Vernon beats the Illinois average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 16. 40% of adults have obesity in Mount Vernon.
| Mount Vernon | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 37% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 13% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Mount Vernon | IL |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 16.8% | 10.3% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.9% | 6.3% |
| More smokers | 16.4% | 12.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Mount Vernon has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 23° and about 10 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 63% of U.S. communities. Since 2006, 12 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Mount Vernon.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Mount Vernon's reported crime rate is above Illinois's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 81 violent crimes were reported in 2025.
| Mount Vernon | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.8 per 1,000 residents | 1 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 20.1 per 1,000 residents | 7.9 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
1 within 15 miles of the center of Mount Vernon
About 3 of every 100 Mount Vernon residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
14 notable people were born in Mount Vernon.
City in Illinois, United States
Mount Vernon is a city in Jefferson County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 14,600 at the 2020 census. Mount Vernon is the principal city of the Mount Vernon, Illinois micropolitan area, which includes all of Jefferson and Hamilton counties.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Mount Vernon.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Vernon · Mount Vernon Township | #736 | D | B | — | D | C |
| Dodds Township | #599 | C | A | — | C | C |
Mount Vernon and Dodds Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Mount Vernon Township and Mount Vernon are one community, graded once. Compare Mount Vernon with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Mount Vernon grades D overall, better than 8% of U.S. towns and #736 of 767 in Illinois. It grades C for health and D for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 2.2 years of the area's median household income ($63,118 across the Mount Vernon, IL area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
14 notable people were born here, including Crista Flanagan and Walt Kirk.
