Wonder LakeIL
A town of 5,593.
Is Wonder Lake a good place to live?
Wonder Lake grades A− overall, 237th of 767 graded towns in Illinois, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. It reports less crime per resident than 92% of U.S. towns and natural-hazard risk is low. It also does better than most on schools: its schools outperform 73% of the state's. A typical home there costs about $293K, 3.2 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. Wonder Lake’s average trip to work is 37 minutes, where Illinois’ towns sit at 26 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes. Only 76 of Illinois’ 1,284 towns score lower on walkability.
What makes Wonder Lake stand out
Where Wonder Lake beats most towns.
100% of working residents leave Wonder Lake for work
Where Wonder Lake’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Wonder Lake grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Wonder Lake is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Wonder Lake: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wonder Lake, 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 Wonder Lake.
Wonder Lake sends most of its workers to Chicago and beyond and sees little violent crime.
Conserved land covers 2.4% of Wonder Lake
6.7 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. Wonder Lake’s trail density is 1.1 miles per square mile. The biggest park or preserve is Jacobson Park, at 25 acres.
| Wonder Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.4% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Jacobson Park | — | 25 |
| 2. Harrison Benwell Conservation Area | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
For safety, Wonder Lake earns an A
Violent crime is rare: 1 reported in 2025, 0.2 per 1,000 residents.
The property crime rate in Wonder Lake is 3.3 per 1,000 residents.
| Wonder Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.3 per 1,000 residents | 7.9 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.2 per 1,000 residents | 1 | 1.6 |
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Compared with most of Illinois and the rest of the country, fewer of Wonder Lake’s working residents work locally
Wonder Lake has 130 jobs for its 1,912 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 37 minutes, against 27.8 across Illinois.
0.4% of working residents work locally in Wonder Lake. The top destinations are Chicago (8%), Woodstock (8%) and McHenry (8%). 2.9% of residents live below the poverty line in Wonder Lake.
| Wonder Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 2.9% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.4% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Work from home | 15% | 11% | 11% |
| Median household income | $95,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Inland flooding leads a low hazard risk in Wonder Lake
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 78% of U.S. communities. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Wonder Lake since 1993.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Wonder Lake ranks healthier than 70% of the country’s towns
Wonder Lake beats the Illinois average on 5 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 20% of Wonder Lake adults binge drink.
| Wonder Lake | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 16% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 35% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 76% | 78% | 79% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 37% | 35% |
| What stands out | Wonder Lake | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 12.3% | 15.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.8% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Wonder Lake has four seasons and pleasant summers
Wonder Lake has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 14° and about 35 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
A larger share of households in Wonder Lake own their home than in the typical Illinois or U.S. town
Of the 768 Illinois towns we compare, none has a higher share of households owning their home than Wonder Lake. The typical Wonder Lake home is worth about $293,000, up 4.3% in a year, close to the Illinois typical home.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Six Flags Great America and 33 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wonder Lake. Close and well known come first.
Big draw21 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great America3.0M visitors a year
35 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate Arena
14 mi MuseumIllinois Railway Museum
33 mi MuseumMcDonald's #1 Store Museum
25 mi TheatreAlpine Valley Music Theatre10 mi MuseumVolo Auto MuseumPhoto credits
Six Flags Great America: Feather Better, CC BY 4.0 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Illinois Railway Museum: The original uploader was Slambo at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 · McDonald's #1 Store Museum: Bruce Marlin, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Alpine Valley Music Theatre: chad davis, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Everything we know about Wonder Lake
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wonder Lake
About 3 of every 100 Wonder Lake residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
Wonder Lake’s neighbors
5 towns share a border with Wonder Lake.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wonder Lake | #237 | A− | C+ | A | B+ | B+ |
| Greenwood | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bull Valley | — | — | C− | A+ | B+ | A− |
| McHenry | #344 | B+ | C− | A− | B− | B+ |
| Ringwood | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Johnsburg | #377 | B | C+ | — | B | B+ |
Bull Valley has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Johnsburg reports no FBI crime data of its own. Greenwood and Ringwood aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Wonder Lake with a neighbor →
Questions about Wonder Lake
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Wonder Lake, IL a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Wonder Lake grades A− overall, better than 80% of U.S. towns and #237 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B+ for health, A for safety and B+ for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Wonder Lake, IL expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.