Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Thornton Township earns a D, ranked 693rd of 767 in Illinois, mostly because of schools. Its public schools trail 82% of Illinois towns on state tests and graduation. In its favor, it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 96% of U.S. towns. Only 70 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns score lower on hazard risk. Thornton Township's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 86% of U.S. towns. Camp Shabbona Woods, at 504 acres with 3.5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
Where Thornton Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Thornton Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 96% of comparable towns) to D for hazard risk (better than 13%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,033 in 1860, a low of 301 in 1870, 2,386 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 2005 and 8 maps from 1892 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Thornton Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw18 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw13 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw24 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw20 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
Big draw19 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 Thornton 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 Thornton Township.
Thornton Township is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding).
21 miles of trail in 86 parks and preserves. Thornton Township’s concentration of trails is 0.5 miles per square mile.
| Thornton Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 6.6% | 3.6% | 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. Camp Shabbona Woods | 3.5 mi | 504 |
| 2. Izaak Walton Preserve | 1.7 mi | 170 |
| 3. Veterans Park | 1.3 mi | 37 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Two of its 80 schools are shown below, with the reason for each. The 6 public schools in Thornton Township teach 3,384 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memorial Jr High SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 854 | C |
| Thornwood High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,843 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IL on state tests and graduation
At 2 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income, the typical home (about $186K) costs less against local pay than in 79% of Illinois towns; that ratio is one input to its C+ for cost of living. 64.6% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 47.9% across Illinois.
The share of renter households in Thornton Township who spend 30% or more of their income on rent: 65%. In the year to September 2026, typical home values climbed 3%. The going rate for rent in the town is $1,203 a month.
| Thornton Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 65% | 46% | 48% |
| Households that own their home | 65% | 75% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 93% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $682 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Three fifths of Thornton Township’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by cold waves at 19%. In Thornton Township, the risk rating from FEMA is 81 of 100, where Illinois’ towns sit at 50 of 100 and U.S. towns at 44 of 100. Flood insurance has paid out on 2,023 claims in the town since 1978.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 8,523 U.S. towns with household incomes like Thornton Township’s, it is healthier than 52%, so its C isn’t only a matter of income.
Thornton Township: just over four in five adults had a checkup this year, above both Illinois’ towns (78%) and U.S. towns (79%). CDC measures, 32 in all: Thornton Township beats Illinois on 3 and trails on 20. 30% of adults worry about having enough food in the town.
| Thornton Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 13% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 35% | 36% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 11% | 12% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 33% |
| What stands out | Thornton Township | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.9% | 7.6% |
| Fewer binge drinkers | 15% | 17.8% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 15.9% | 7.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The range runs from 18° on a January night to 84° on a July afternoon, with about 28 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Thornton Township: 14% of working residents work locally. The top destinations are Chicago (32%), South Holland (4%) and Lansing (2%). Its income of the median household is $59,000. Also worth knowing: between 2013 and 2023, jobs in Thornton Township dropped by 2,975, to 47,737.
| Thornton Township | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 21% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $59,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 14% | 8.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
22 within 15 miles of the center of Thornton Township
About 5 of every 100 Thornton Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
Village in Illinois, United States
Thornton is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a south suburb of Chicago. The population was 2,386 at the 2020 census. Thornton is home to the Thornton Quarry, one of the largest quarries in the world.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Thornton Township.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thornton Township | #693 | D | C+ | — | C− | C |
| Bremen Township | #534 | C+ | C | — | C+ | B |
| Chicago | #676 | C− | C− | D | C | B+ |
| Burnham | #700 | D | B− | — | C− | C− |
| Bloom Township | #663 | C− | C+ | — | C− | C |
| Calumet Township | #740 | D | C+ | — | C− | D |
| Thornton | — | — | B+ | C | D | A− |
| Riverdale | #761 | D− | B− | — | D | D− |
Thornton has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Thornton Township, Bremen Township, Burnham, Bloom Township, Calumet Township and Riverdale report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Thornton Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Thornton Township grades D overall, better than 13% of U.S. towns and #693 of 767 in Illinois. It grades C for health and C− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 2 years of the area's median household income ($90,887 across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area).
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