Is Palos Heights a good place to live?
For most people who can afford it, yes. Palos Heights grades A− overall, 206th of 767 graded towns in Illinois. The median household earns $109K. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 88% of the country and its schools outperform 75% of the state's. What holds it back is price: the typical home is worth about $404K, 4.5 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. 32% of residents are 65 or older in Palos Heights, above both Illinois’ towns (19%) and U.S. towns (18%). Only 100 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns score lower on hazard risk. Palos Heights is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 90% of U.S. towns.
What makes Palos Heights stand out
Where Palos Heights beats most towns.
Trinity Christian College calls Palos Heights home
How Palos Heights grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Palos Heights is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Soldier Field and 153 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Palos Heights. Close and well known come first.
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw21 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw14 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw14 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw17 mi MuseumArt Institute of Chicago1.5M visitors a yearPhoto credits
Soldier 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
Moving to Palos Heights: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Palos Heights, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Palos Heights.
Palos Heights sees little violent crime, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding) and has lost a quarter or more of its jobs in ten years.
For health, Palos Heights earns an A
13% of adults report frequent mental distress in Palos Heights. Palos Heights beats the Illinois average on 19 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5. 27% of adults have obesity in Palos Heights.
| Palos Heights | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 37% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 35% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.3% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Palos Heights | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 4.3% | 7.8% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 7.4% | 13.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.3% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
| Palos Heights | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.5% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lake Katherine Nature Center & Botanic Gardens | 1.4 mi | 37 |
| 2. Community Park | — | 32 |
| 3. Palmer Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Older than Illinois overall
People 65 and older are 32% of residents (17% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 15% of residents (23% statewide). The median age in Palos Heights is 50.2 years. Palos Heights has lost 3% of its people since 2020, down to 12,084 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Palos Heights | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 50.2 years | 40.7 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 44% | 29% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.6 points. Across Illinois, 50.6% of residents are women.
| Palos Heights | IL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 9% | 11.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.9% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.6% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.5% | 13.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.1% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 8.7% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.9% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 17.1% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 15.2% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.3% | 9.5% | 10.4% |
| High school | 22.1% | 25.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 22% | 19.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.9% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.7% | 22.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 18.9% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Very high risk in Palos Heights, with inland flooding at the top
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $829 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Palos Heights’ FEMA risk score is 82 of 100. Since 1978, 9 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Palos Heights.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
For cost of living, Palos Heights earns a D
93% of Palos Heights households own their home. Typical home values rose 5.2% in the year to September 2026.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Palos Heights is safer than 74% of U.S. towns, by crime per resident
Violent crime is rare: 6 reported in 2025, 0.5 per 1,000 residents.
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Four seasons and pleasant summers in Palos Heights
Palos Heights 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.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
A job hub: Palos Heights has 1.2 jobs for every working resident and draws in 6,183 commuters
Jobs based here fell from 8,259 in 2013 to 6,544.
Most working residents leave Palos Heights for work: only 7% work in town. Jobs based in Palos Heights fell to 6,544 in 2023, 1,715 fewer than in 2013. The top destinations are Chicago (28%), Orland Park (3%) and Oak Lawn (3%).
| Palos Heights | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $109,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 30 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 5.2% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 14% | 11% | 11% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Everything we know about Palos Heights
Colleges nearby
22 within 15 miles of the center of Palos Heights
About 5 of every 100 Palos Heights residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
Famous people from Palos Heights
5 notable people were born in Palos Heights.
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About Palos Heights
City in Illinois, United States
Palos Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 12,068.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Established
- 1959
- Area
- 3.9 sq mi
- Elevation
- 627 ft
- ZIP code
- 60463
- Area code
- 708
Palos Heights’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Palos Heights.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palos Heights | #206 | A− | D | B+ | A− | A |
| Palos Park | #140 | A | D | A | A | A |
| Worth | #560 | C+ | C+ | B− | B | B− |
| Palos Hills | #120 | A | C | A− | A | A− |
Questions about Palos Heights
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Palos Heights, IL a good place to live?
For most people who can afford it, yes. Palos Heights grades A− overall, better than 82% of U.S. towns and #206 of 767 in Illinois. It grades A for health, B+ for safety and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Palos Heights, IL expensive?
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
What is Palos Heights, IL known for?
5 notable people were born here, including Jennifer Lien and Christine Magnuson.