Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,278, settled in 1853.
The best of Wayne’s subject grades are an A+ for incomes and an A for health and the outdoors; the weakest is a D− for cost of living. 22% of the land in Wayne is conserved, where Illinois’ towns sit at 3.7% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Only 76 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns score higher on the outdoors. Wayne has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Oaklawn Farm and Wayne Village Historic District. Wayne has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Wayne beats most towns.
Where Wayne’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 Wayne is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 373 in 1960, 2,286 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 2007 and 6 maps from 1948 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wayne. Close and well known come first.
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaSoldier Field
Big draw31 mi Stadium & arenaWrigley Field
Big draw36 mi MuseumBarack Obama Presidential Center
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaRate Field
Big draw30 mi Stadium & arenaUnited Center
19 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate ArenaSoldier 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 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wayne, 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 Wayne.
For adults in Wayne, the share who get no exercise outside work is 17%. Against the Illinois average, Wayne comes out ahead on 20 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1. In Wayne, 13% of adults report frequent mental distress, against 17% in Illinois’ towns and 17% across U.S. towns. Among adults locally, 8.8% smoke cigarettes and 18% have been diagnosed with depression.
| Wayne | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.8% | 13% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 22% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Wayne | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.3% | 15.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.8% | 9.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.1% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Federal disaster aid has reached households in Wayne after 2 declared disasters, most recently in 2013. Expected damage from storms and floods is lower here than in 84% of U.S. communities. Of the losses FEMA expects here, 52% come from inland flooding and 20% from tornadoes.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Half commute less than 12 miles. Wayne’s income of the median household comes in at $162,000. Also worth knowing: for most workers, Wayne is a place to come home to: only 1% work in town. In Wayne, 2.1% of residents live below the poverty line.
| Wayne | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $162,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2.1% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 17% | 11% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.6% | 8.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The biggest park or preserve is Dunham Forest Preserve, at 371 acres. Count the trails in 4 parks and preserves and they come to 2.2 miles.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve | 0.3 mi | 48 |
| 2. Dunham Forest Preserve | 0.1 mi | 371 |
| 3. Brewster Creek Forest Preserve | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Summer afternoons peak near 84° in July, and January nights bottom out around 15°; snowfall runs to about 46 inches a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Wayne's reported crime rate is well below Illinois's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. No violent crimes were reported in 2024.
| Wayne | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 0.9 per 1,000 residents | 9.3 | 11.5 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 0 per 1,000 residents | 1.2 | 1.7 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
14 within 15 miles of the center of Wayne
About 6 of every 100 Wayne residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Illinois.
3 places in Wayne on the National Register of Historic Places.
Village in Illinois, United States
Wayne is a village in DuPage and Kane counties, Illinois, United States. The eastern portion, in DuPage County, is in Wayne Township, while the western portion, in Kane County, is in St. Charles Township. The population was 2,286 as of the 2020 census. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Wayne was a prominent center of horse breeding and farming research. The community, situated in a small, rural valley, was known for breeding French Percheron horses, a draught horse similar to a Clydesdale. Wayne was founded in the 1800s at the same time as the similarly named Wayne Center. Wayne Center was located on Army Trail Road at DuPage River crossing and no longer exists. "Downtown" Wayne was …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Wayne.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne | — | — | D− | — | B | A |
| St. Charles | #153 | A | D | B | A | A |
| West Chicago | #378 | B | D | B+ | A− | B+ |
| Bartlett | #223 | A− | D | A | C+ | A |
Wayne has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Wayne reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Wayne with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes. The typical home is worth about $643,000, 117% above the Illinois typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.
2 notable people were born here, including Courtney Reum and Mark Wentworth Dunham.
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