10 Best Places to Retire in Illinois

With 10 best places to retire in Illinois, we resume our search for the best retirement places in the United States. Who knows, maybe one place from this list will be your next destination.

One thing that everyone thinks about Illinois is that this state represents something of a smaller version of the United States. Why? Well, the state is filled with small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois. On the south, the state is rich with natural resources, primarily coal, timber, and petroleum. And then, of course, there is Chicago, state’s most populous city and third most populous city in the United States.

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Being so diverse, Illinois has something for everyone. No matter what your sphere of interest is, your planned retirement activity, Illinois probably has just the place for you. When it comes to climate, Illinois has hot, humid summers and cold winters that can get pretty sharp from time to time.

One interesting fact about Illinois is that the current US President, Barack Obama, spent most of his life here and was elected as President from this state. Before him, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant did the same. This is why Illinois’ current slogan is “Land of Lincoln”. And if you are more interested in places that normal people can live like royalty instead of places where many presidents were born and raised, check out our list of the cheapest countries to live like a king.

To find the best places to retire in Illinois, first we searched for the most livable places in Illinois, and we found 20 cities that have a population greater than 5,000, according to Area Vibes. Then, we decided to rank all those cities separately according to four different criteria – the number of physicians per capita, percentage of residents aged 65 years and over, crime rates, and the costs of living. Data was obtained from Sperling’s Best Places and U.S. Census, and each city got the points for the ranking in each category. In the end, all scores were summed up, and we have created our unique list of most retiree-friendly places in Illinois. Let’s check them out, shall we?