Metro Life Score
Kankakee, IL
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 12th percentile of the national corpus.
- 40.3
- Life Score / 100
- C-
- Grade (curved)
- #341
- of 387 metros
- 12%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Kankakee is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #341 of 387 (40.3/100, grade C-, 12th percentile). Carried by safety at 70/100; held back most by childcare at 27/100.
- 12th
- composite percentile
- #341
- of 387 peers
- 36th
- cost dimension percentile
- 33rd
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · LOWER · SAFE-LED · signature composite
Kankakee: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates
Kankakee sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#341 of 387, 40.3/100, 12th percentile). Stamps LOWER · SAFE-LED; Childcare at 27/100 is the main drag; Safety (70/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/LOW. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Kankakee, IL ranks #341 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #246 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 96.4 (rent-RPP 92.9). BLS median salary $61,541, 36,680 jobs (Registered Nurses, Fast Food and Counter Workers, Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand). HUD 2BR FMR $1,326/mo (studio $914).
FBI UCR (IL): 277 violent, 1665 property/100K. NCES: 13.4:1 ratio, 3.5% charter. DOL infant childcare $12,257/yr. EPA: 56 Superfund sites (IL).
Where Kankakee sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
40 12th percentile higher than 12% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 40.3 is built
Kankakee's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Kankakee scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are IL state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Kankakee With...
Ranking Context
Kankakee outranks 12% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #338 | Anchorage, AK | 40.4 | C- |
| #339 | Vallejo, CA | 40.5 | C- |
| #340 | Modesto, CA | 40.5 | C- |
| #341 | Kankakee, IL | 40.3 | C- |
| #342 | Flagstaff, AZ | 40.3 | C- |
| #343 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 40.1 | C- |
| #344 | Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | 40.0 | C- |
Quality vs. Affordability
Kankakee, IL is bottom 12% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 37% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
IL Metro Scores
Read with Kankakee
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Kankakee (LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Flagstaff, AZ
ABS(composite) peer at 40.3 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW.
Anchorage, AK
ABS(composite) peer at 40.4 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.1 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW.
Modesto, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.5 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW.
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 37/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
Wilmington, NC (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 36/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
Kankakee, IL relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/LOW - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Kankakee's bottom-third Life Score
Kankakee scores 40.3/100 overall, but Safety (69.9) and Childcare (27.1) sit 42.9 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Safety is the strongest of Kankakee's seven dimensions (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Childcare is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Decatur is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Decatur
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.