Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 5,405, settled in 1910.
Posen is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C− overall, 653rd among Illinois's 767 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 53% of the country. Its lowest everyday mark is in safety: its crime rate is higher than 84% of U.S. towns, with 31 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. A typical home there costs about $203K, 2.2 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. Posen’s violent crime rate is 5.8 per 1,000 residents, above both Illinois’ towns (1) and U.S. towns (1.6). On hazard risk, just 19 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns do worse. Posen's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 99% of U.S. towns.
Where Posen beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Where Posen’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 Posen is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 343 in 1910, 5,632 in 2020. The archive holds 1 old photo or paper going back to 1850 and 7 maps from 1892 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Posen. Close and well known come first.
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw12 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw14 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw18 mi MuseumArt Institute of Chicago1.5M visitors a yearSoldier Field: Photo by Joon Han Contact: [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0 · Barack Obama Presidential Center: AlphaBeta135, CC0 · Wrigley Field: Ryan Dickey, CC BY 2.0 · 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 Posen, 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 Posen.
Posen carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding), but it reports violent crime at about twice the Illinois rate and has poverty well above the Illinois rate.
Violent crime runs at 5.8 per 1,000 residents, about twice the Illinois rate; the Safety Grade counts each violent crime four times, so this weighs most on its C−.
The property crime rate in Posen is 24.6 per 1,000 residents. Posen reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 84% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 98% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $1,027 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Posen’s FEMA risk score is 88 of 100. Since 1981, 42 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Posen.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Jobs based here fell from 1,223 in 2013 to 955.
Most working residents leave Posen for work: only 2% work in town. 22% of Posen residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Posen has lost 268 jobs, to 955 in 2023.
| Posen | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 22% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.8% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Typical home values rose 5.9% in the year to September 2026. 67% of households own their home in Posen.
| Posen | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 67% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,372 a month | $1,128 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Posen has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 17° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Posen beats the Illinois average on 5 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 15. Among 767 Illinois towns, just 7 have a higher share of adults 18 to 64 who have no health insurance than Posen.
| Posen | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 13% | 14% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 33% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 74% | 78% | 79% |
| What stands out | Posen | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.9% | 7.6% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 19.4% | 24.2% |
| More uninsured adults | 20.7% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorial Park | — | 7 |
| 2. Commisioners Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
25 within 15 miles of the center of Posen
About 5 of every 100 Posen residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
Village in Illinois, United States
Posen is a village and south suburb of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Posen is the German language name for the western Polish city of Poznań. The population of the village was 5,632 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Posen.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posen | #653 | C− | B− | C− | C | B− |
| Dixmoor | #728 | D | B− | — | D | C− |
| Harvey | #751 | D | B+ | D | D | D |
| Blue Island | #707 | D | B− | C− | C− | C+ |
| Markham | #732 | D | C+ | — | C− | C− |
| Bremen Township | #534 | C+ | C | — | C+ | B |
| Thornton Township | #693 | D | C+ | — | C− | C |
Dixmoor, Markham, Bremen Township and Thornton Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Posen with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Posen grades C− overall, better than 20% of U.S. towns and #653 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B− for health, C− for safety and C for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
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