LivingCostFacts / state

Illinois cost of living

Illinois has an all-items price parity of 100.0 on the U.S. = 100 scale. Compare the statewide picture with county rents and metro price levels.

BEA 2024 · HUD FY2027 · ACS 2020–2024 · CPI through 2026-10

100.0
All-items price level

BEA 2024; U.S. = 100

$83,390
Median household income

ACS 2020–2024

$263,300
Median home value

Owner-occupied homes, ACS 2020–2024

$1,724
Typical 2BR benchmark

Population-weighted county FMR, FY2027

Read the local picture

Regional Price Parities (RPPs) compare prices across places in the same year. An index of 110 means prices are 10% above the U.S. level; 90 means 10% below. RPP measures relative price levels, while CPI measures price change over time.

Illinois: RPP components

BEA 2024 regional context; each category is compared with its own U.S. = 100 benchmark. These are not county price estimates or spending shares.

  1. All items100.0
  2. Goods103.8
  3. Housing rents93.9
  4. Utilities85.0
  5. Other services100.2
0103.8

Black marker: U.S. benchmark = 100 in each row.

Put the benchmark in context

Fair Market Rent (FMR) is HUD’s estimate of the 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality rental homes occupied by recent movers. It includes rent and most tenant-paid utilities. A household’s actual rent can differ substantially by neighborhood, lease and property.

Monthly rent by bedroom

HUD FY2027 gross monthly FMR; includes most tenant-paid utilities. Dollars per month.

  1. Studio$1,401
  2. 1 bedroom$1,489
  3. 2 bedrooms$1,724
  4. 3 bedrooms$2,220
  5. 4 bedrooms$2,524
0$2,524

Income after benchmark rent is $62,698 a year: ACS median household income minus 12 months of the population-weighted 2BR FMR. This is a comparison between separate datasets and periods, before taxes and all other expenses; it is not disposable income.

The data in view

Price levels relative to the U.S.

BEA RPP, U.S. = 100 each year. This is not an inflation index.

View chart data
Period or categoryValue
2008100.3
2009101.6
2010101.8
2011102.0
2012100.9
2013100.2
201499.7
201598.9
201699.5
2017100.3
2018100.4
201999.5
2020100.3
2021101.3
2022101.2
202398.8
2024100.0

Price levels by category

Each category has its own U.S. benchmark of 100. Components are indexes, not spending shares.

Category2024 RPP
All items100.0
Goods103.8
Housing rents93.9
Utilities85.0
Other services100.2

Monthly Fair Market Rent by bedroom

HUD 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality units; includes tenant-paid utilities except telephone, cable and internet. These are benchmarks, not asking-rent medians.

Home sizeFY2027 monthly gross rent
Studio$1,401
1 bedroom$1,489
2 bedrooms$1,724
3 bedrooms$2,220
4 bedrooms$2,524

County cost comparison

Income: ACS 2020–2024. Rent: HUD FY2027. Rent / income = 12 × 2BR FMR ÷ median household income; it does not measure actual renter burden.

County or equivalent2BR rent / monthMedian household incomeRent / income
Adams County$1,013$66,22018.4%
Alexander County$1,012$47,04325.8%
Bond County$979$65,95917.8%
Boone County$1,172$84,57116.6%
Brown County$1,084$67,91719.2%
Bureau County$981$69,25717.0%
Calhoun County$1,349$93,20317.4%
Carroll County$930$60,75818.4%
Cass County$930$68,12516.4%
Champaign County$1,173$63,68322.1%
Christian County$939$62,61118.0%
Clark County$1,011$72,92716.6%
Clay County$930$60,41718.5%
Clinton County$1,349$86,58818.7%
Coles County$950$56,47820.2%
Cook County$2,011$83,49828.9%
Crawford County$930$71,67415.6%
Cumberland County$930$73,32715.2%
De Witt County$1,059$71,67817.7%
DeKalb County$1,481$70,72425.1%
Douglas County$930$77,32014.4%
DuPage County$2,011$112,09621.5%
Edgar County$930$59,94118.6%
Edwards County$930$60,51918.4%
Effingham County$930$80,40413.9%
Fayette County$930$60,94418.3%
Ford County$930$62,43917.9%
Franklin County$930$56,74019.7%
Fulton County$930$60,59918.4%
Gallatin County$930$59,21918.8%
Greene County$965$62,19218.6%
Grundy County$1,613$92,23521.0%
Hamilton County$930$65,74617.0%
Hancock County$930$65,86516.9%
Hardin County$930$54,27120.6%
Henderson County$935$62,22718.0%
Henry County$1,056$71,91117.6%
Iroquois County$930$66,25516.8%
Jackson County$930$48,76322.9%
Jasper County$948$74,75515.2%
Jefferson County$994$63,11818.9%
Jersey County$1,349$80,36120.1%
Jo Daviess County$959$73,99315.6%
Johnson County$930$62,52817.8%
Kane County$2,011$103,16323.4%
Kankakee County$1,349$71,28122.7%
Kendall County$2,341$111,60125.2%
Knox County$930$57,03019.6%
LaSalle County$1,052$73,04517.3%
Lake County$2,011$110,41621.9%
Lawrence County$943$55,32420.5%
Lee County$930$70,29215.9%
Livingston County$996$73,79016.2%
Logan County$962$66,35817.4%
Macon County$1,091$62,66620.9%
Macoupin County$978$70,80516.6%
Madison County$1,349$75,79321.4%
Marion County$930$61,24018.2%
Marshall County$1,212$71,58520.3%
Mason County$930$62,84517.8%
Massac County$993$65,11618.3%
McDonough County$930$52,79521.1%
McHenry County$2,011$104,80223.0%
McLean County$1,287$79,90519.3%
Menard County$1,237$82,17618.1%
Mercer County$1,056$74,18217.1%
Monroe County$1,349$102,88015.7%
Montgomery County$930$63,62017.5%
Morgan County$930$66,30616.8%
Moultrie County$930$71,78415.5%
Ogle County$1,080$82,13215.8%
Peoria County$1,212$65,10822.3%
Perry County$930$62,11818.0%
Piatt County$1,173$94,81114.8%
Pike County$930$59,77718.7%
Pope County$1,095$60,05021.9%
Pulaski County$930$42,46326.3%
Putnam County$942$75,59015.0%
Randolph County$930$68,13116.4%
Richland County$935$62,45518.0%
Rock Island County$1,056$67,15918.9%
Saline County$930$53,11721.0%
Sangamon County$1,237$75,35719.7%
Schuyler County$930$65,94816.9%
Scott County$930$66,70516.7%
Shelby County$946$72,09515.7%
St. Clair County$1,349$73,85421.9%
Stark County$1,212$62,87823.1%
Stephenson County$930$64,04317.4%
Tazewell County$1,212$77,98218.7%
Union County$930$55,72820.0%
Vermilion County$956$56,87720.2%
Wabash County$992$57,08620.9%
Warren County$930$67,38516.6%
Washington County$930$78,22414.3%
Wayne County$930$55,52120.1%
White County$930$54,81320.4%
Whiteside County$945$67,50016.8%
Will County$2,011$109,98421.9%
Williamson County$996$65,60418.2%
Winnebago County$1,172$65,83721.4%
Woodford County$1,212$91,48315.9%

Metros with member counties in Illinois

BEA 2024, U.S. = 100. Rent is a population-weighted mean of member-county benchmarks where available.

Metro areaAll-items RPPHousing RPP2BR rent / month
Bloomington, IL93.574.7$1,287
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL86.156.4$1,012
Champaign-Urbana, IL92.771.6$1,159
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN103.6112.0$1,963
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL89.168.3$1,056
Decatur, IL88.456.2$1,091
Kankakee, IL96.492.9$1,349
Paducah, KY-IL86.148.8$1,115
Peoria, IL91.263.8$1,212
Rockford, IL92.270.1$1,172
Springfield, IL92.771.6$1,237
St. Louis, MO-IL95.179.0$1,341