Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A city of 147,144, organized in 1850.
For a city of 147,144, Proviso Township does unevenly: it grades C+, 512th of 767 graded towns in Illinois. It is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns. The trade-off: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 71% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. The biggest place to walk is Bemis Woods Preserve, 514 acres with 5.7 miles of trail. The typical home is worth about $284K, 3.1 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income.
Where Proviso Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Proviso Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 69,519 in 1930, 151,209 in 2020. The archive holds 7 maps from 1891 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Proviso Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw16 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw10 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 Proviso 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 Proviso Township.
23 miles of trail in 57 parks and preserves. Proviso Township’s trail density is 0.8 miles per square mile, against 0.3 in Illinois’ towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Proviso Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.8 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.1% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bemis Woods Preserve | 5.7 mi | 514 |
| 2. Salt Creek Woods | 1.3 mi | 401 |
| 3. Brezina Woods | 1 mi | 83 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Three of its 61 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brook Park Elem SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 889 | B+ |
| Proviso West High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,870 | C− |
| Park Junior High SchoolTop results in townGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 661 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
Since 1978, 2,580 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Proviso Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Proviso Township beats the Illinois average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5. 18% of Proviso Township adults have been diagnosed with depression, below both the Illinois town median (22%) and the median of U.S. towns (23%). 21% of Proviso Township adults worry about having enough food.
| Proviso Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 22% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 13% | 14% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| What stands out | Proviso Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.9% | 7.6% |
| More adults facing housing insecurity | 17.8% | 13.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Proviso Township has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 17° and about 42 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Proviso Township has about as many jobs (77,151) as working residents, but only 8,895 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Proviso Township for work: only 13% work in town. Since 2013, Proviso Township has added 10,601 jobs, to 77,151 in 2023. Proviso Township’s average trip to work is 29 minutes.
| Proviso Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 13% | 8.3% | 8% |
| Work from home | 14% | 11% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 10% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Illinois average. Proviso Township has lost 2.7% of its people since 2020, down to 147,144 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 31% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 38% across Illinois.
| Proviso Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 31% | 29% | 29% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1 point. Across Illinois, 50.6% of residents are women. Median age: women 41.4, men 39.1.
| Proviso Township | IL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.1% | 11.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.1% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8.2% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.4% | 13.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.4% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.5% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.7% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.2% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.3% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 14.9% | 9.5% | 10.4% |
| High school | 27.7% | 25.1% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.3% | 19.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7.6% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 18.5% | 22.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 12% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
52 within 15 miles of the center of Proviso Township
About 6 of every 100 Proviso Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
Township in Illinois, United States
Proviso Township is one of 29 townships in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 151,209. It was organized in 1850 and originally named "Taylor", but shortly afterward its name was changed to make reference to the Wilmot Proviso, a contemporary piece of legislation intended to stop the spread of slavery. The Proviso Township government office is located at 4565 West Harrison Street, Hillside, IL 60162.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Proviso Township.
La Grange Park next door grades higher for schools (A+ to Proviso Township’s C) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proviso Township | #512 | C+ | C | — | C | B+ |
| River Forest · River Forest Township | #241 | A− | D | C+ | A+ | A+ |
| Lyons Township | #219 | A− | C− | — | A− | A |
| York Township | #220 | A− | D | — | B+ | A |
| Maywood | #714 | D | C | — | C− | C− |
| La Grange Park | #22 | A+ | D | A− | A+ | A+ |
| La Grange | #42 | A+ | C− | B | A | A+ |
| Leyden Township | #543 | C+ | C | — | C− | B |
Proviso Township, Lyons Township, York Township, Maywood and Leyden Township report no FBI crime data of their own. River Forest Township and River Forest are one community, graded once. Compare Proviso Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Proviso Township grades C+ overall, better than 44% of U.S. towns and #512 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B+ for health and C for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
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