Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Oak Lawn grades B− overall, 502nd among Illinois's 767 graded towns, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. It is healthier than 75% of U.S. towns and it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 95% of U.S. towns. On the other side, FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 83% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. Oak Lawn is home to Northwestern College. On history, just 128 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns do worse. Oak Lawn’s average trip to work is 31 minutes, where Illinois’ towns sit at 26 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes.
Where Oak Lawn beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Oak Lawn is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 287 in 1910, 58,362 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1910 and 8 maps from 1890 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Oak Lawn. Close and well known come first.
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw10 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw13 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 Oak Lawn, 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 Oak Lawn.
Oak Lawn reports less crime than Chicago Ridge or any other graded neighbor, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding).
3.8 miles of trail in 16 parks and preserves. Centennial Park, at 55 acres with 1.5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Oak Lawn | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.9% | 3.6% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Centennial Park | 1.5 mi | 55 |
| 2. Memorial Park | 0.4 mi | 9 |
| 3. Worthbrook Park | 0.3 mi | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 95% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $727 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1978, 44 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Oak Lawn.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
30% of Oak Lawn adults have obesity. Oak Lawn beats the Illinois average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 19% of Oak Lawn adults binge drink.
| Oak Lawn | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 37% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 35% | 35% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | Oak Lawn | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with obesity | 30.2% | 34% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Oak Lawn has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 17° and about 39 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave Oak Lawn for work: only 7% work in town. The top destinations are Chicago (36%), Bedford Park (2%) and Alsip (2%). Half commute less than 12 miles.
| Oak Lawn | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 7.2% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Median household income | $84,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Illinois average. Oak Lawn has lost 3.2% of its people since 2020, down to 56,450 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 32% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 38% across Illinois.
| Oak Lawn | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 23% | 22% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 32% | 29% | 29% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.3 points. Across Illinois, 50.6% of residents are women. Median age: women 42.0, men 39.0.
| Oak Lawn | IL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.9% | 11.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.4% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.1% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.9% | 13.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.2% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.7% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12.2% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6.5% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 9.7% | 9.5% | 10.4% |
| High school | 29.1% | 25.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.8% | 19.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.8% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 20.9% | 22.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.7% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Crime runs higher than in most U.S. towns, but its B− tops all 4 graded towns on its borders; Chicago Ridge (C) comes closest. Reported crimes fell from 942 to 820 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Oak Lawn’s property crime rate is 13.9 per 1,000 residents.
| Oak Lawn | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 13.9 per 1,000 residents | 7.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
The typical Oak Lawn home is worth about $299,000, up 6.1% in a year, close to the Illinois typical home. The median rent in Oak Lawn is $1,335 a month.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
45 within 15 miles of the center of Oak Lawn
About 6 of every 100 Oak Lawn residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
20 notable people were born in Oak Lawn.
Village in Illinois, United States
Oak Lawn is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 22nd-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 58,362 as of the 2020 census. Oak Lawn was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in 1909. The village serves as a major medical and economic anchor for the southwest suburbs, notably hosting Advocate Christ Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals and Level I trauma centers in the state of Illinois.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
8 towns share a border with Oak Lawn.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Lawn | #502 | B− | C | B− | C+ | A− |
| Chicago Ridge | #611 | C | C+ | C | C | B+ |
| Alsip | #666 | C− | C+ | C− | C− | B |
| Bridgeview | #350 | B+ | C | — | A− | B+ |
| Hometown | #134 | A | B+ | — | B− | B+ |
| Worth Township | #531 | C+ | C | — | C | B+ |
| Chicago | #676 | C− | C− | D | C | B+ |
| Burbank | #630 | C− | C | C | C | B |
Bridgeview, Hometown and Worth Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Oak Lawn with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Oak Lawn grades B− overall, better than 46% of U.S. towns and #502 of 767 in Illinois. It grades A− for health, B− for safety and C+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 3.3 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.
20 notable people were born here, including Dan Donegan and C. J. Kupec.
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