State Life Score
Illinois
Above-median composite Life Score — grade B-, 55th percentile of the national corpus.
- 52.0
- Life Score / 100
- B-
- Grade (curved)
- #23
- of 51 states
- 55%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Illinois is above-median composite Life Score — #23 of 51 (52.0/100, grade B-, 55th percentile). Carried by wages at 72/100; held back most by environment at 30/100.
- 55th
- composite percentile
- #23
- of 51 peers
- 35th
- cost dimension percentile
- 71st
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · MID · WAGE-LED
Illinois at a glance
Illinois is a MID-band WAGE-LED state: wages leads at 72/100 while environment drags at 30/100 (DEAR cost · HIGH wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Illinois ranks #23 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #33 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
Where Illinois sits among all US states
Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC
52 55th percentile higher than 55% of 51 US states
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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
How the 52.0 is built
Illinois's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Illinois scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Read with Illinois
Nearest composite peers and cost poles (MID · DEAR/HIGH).
Arkansas
ABS(composite) peer at 52.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.
Utah
ABS(composite) peer at 51.8 (Δ 0.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.
Virginia
ABS(composite) peer at 52.4 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B vs this page's MID · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.
Michigan
ABS(composite) peer at 51.2 (Δ 0.8 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · WAGE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.
Delaware (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 38/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp DEAR vs this state's DEAR.
Nevada (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 34/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp DEAR vs this state's DEAR.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainCompare is loaded directly from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OEWS, NCES, DOL, EPA, and the Census Bureau, no number is typed in by an editor. This state's Life Score is computed directly from the same federal sources used across PlainCompare. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.