Palatine, Illinois

Area Profile

66,293 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Palatine, in Cook County.

60out of 100
Area Score
Top 50% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2629th of 3,904 cities measured48
SchoolsTop 38% of 2,668 cities measured61
Growth2743rd of 2,973 cities measured20
Housing affordabilityTop 31% of 4,223 cities measured91
Climate3314th of 4,223 cities measured62
Physical resilienceTop 36% of 4,182 cities measured70
AccessTop 23% of 4,226 cities measured97
Economic stabilityTop 21% of 4,226 cities measured73
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.7% and median household income $97,819, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 4 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

A major airport is 12 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
66,293
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$97,819
Top 20% nationally
Density
4,696/sq mi
14.1 sq mi of land
Median age
40.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cook County
Illinois
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nearest major airport
ORD
12 mi · Chicago O'Hare Intl
Median home value
$355,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 36% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.1% over the past year, to 36,470 employed residents.

51% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 89% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,650$97,819Top 20%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,455$51,147Top 16%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 38%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.0 minTop 34%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.1%Top 11%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment36,470Bottom 43%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.5%Bottom 43%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.1%Bottom 7%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force38,255Bottom 43%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation71.3%Top 15%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$73,380Top 36%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$54,720Top 39%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 36%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.03.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.7% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202498k86k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $97,819 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand157,920$40,550
General and Operations Managers122,930$109,390
Home Health and Personal Care Aides108,520$38,180
Registered Nurses100,240$100,490
Cashiers99,240$35,010
Fast Food and Counter Workers97,280$34,630

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 26% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.0%
Top 30% in Illinois
Reading proficiency
26.2%
Bottom 45% in Illinois
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Wm Fremd High SchoolTownship HSD 2112,68916.6
Palatine High SchoolTownship HSD 2112,53513.9
Winston Campus Middle SchoolPalatine CCSD 1584713.012%17%
Lincoln Elementary SchoolPalatine CCSD 1577215.133%22%
Virginia Lake Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1571716.332%24%
Walter R Sundling Middle SchoolPalatine CCSD 1567911.332%32%
Gray M Sanborn Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1566113.525%21%
Hunting Ridge Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1563915.255%43%
Lake Louise Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1560816.414%7%
Jane Addams Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1556712.915%12%
Marion Jordan Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1550314.871%50%
Pleasant Hill Elem SchoolPalatine CCSD 1543515.565%47%

39.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Illinois’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,549 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,549
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$355,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.64Top 33%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.4%Bottom 33%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±71828,469Top 2%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,549Top 19%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,491$355,600Top 22%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.0%Top 47%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.1%Bottom 24%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
20/ 100
Ranks 2743 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 65,951 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
4
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 7% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202468k65k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020212022202320242025645.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (0%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 32.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 11 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHICAGO PALWAUKEE AP, 7.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index84.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation32.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100112024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
84
90th percentile index
Days above 100
11
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

70 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding and earthquake.

Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, tornado, heat wave, strong wind, winter weather, hail, lightning, ice storm, landslide, wildfire, hurricane, coastal flooding, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Cook County records 10.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.4 per 100,000 residents in Cook County.

Homicide
10.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cook County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Palatine rather than Palatine itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chicago O'Hare IntlORD12 mi11,245 ft
Gary/Chicago IntlGYY47 mi8,859 ft
South Bend IntlSBN93 mi8,412 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
60
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Other cities in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ChicagoCook County2,711,22654vs Palatine
AuroraKane County179,89864vs Palatine
NapervilleDuPage County150,69271vs Palatine
JolietWill County150,44559vs Palatine
ElginKane County114,93457vs Palatine
WaukeganLake County89,07658vs Palatine
CiceroCook County82,79748vs Palatine
SchaumburgCook County76,86861vs Palatine
HammondLake County76,76858vs Palatine
EvanstonCook County76,34063vs Palatine
Arlington HeightsCook County76,00566vs Palatine
BolingbrookWill County74,09664vs Palatine

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Palatine

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6006738,204$125,44663
6007436,460$84,08956