These Are The 10 Snobbiest Places In Illinois


We used science and data to determine which Illinois cities are the snootiest.

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This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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When it comes to being a snob, there are all types. You’ve got your Wine Snobs, your Book Snobs, and of course, your Clothes Snobs. Then there are the Technology Snobs, Car Snobs, and yes, even City Snobs—as in, I’m better than you because I live in (insert snooty city here).

How can we tell which Illinois cities are the snobbiest? By measuring snobby things, that’s how.

After analyzing 341 of the state’s most populous areas (over 5,000 people), we came up with this list as the 10 snobbiest places in the state of Illinois:

  1. Glencoe (Photos)
  2. Winnetka (Photos)
  3. Oak Brook (Photos)
  4. Wilmette (Photos)
  5. Long Grove
  6. Lincolnshire (Photos)
  7. Barrington (Photos)
  8. Lake Bluff (Photos)
  9. Northfield (Photos)
  10. Highland Park (Photos)

And before you get too far and hate on this list, just know that we’re not saying these are bad places. Maybe we’re just a little jealous of them.

Heck, in fact, we’d probably be a little snobby too if we lived in these cities.

Chicago proper ranks as 65th most snobby. The most ‘down to earth’ city, aka least snobby people in Illinois? That would be East St. Louis. You can imagine that’s pretty accurate.

For more Illinois reading, check out:

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How do you decide if a place is snobby or not?

In order to rank the most stuck up people in Illinois, we had to determine what criteria makes people snobs. It isn’t a stretch to assume that people who have the highest educations, live in the nicest neighborhoods, and who attend fancy events.

So we scraped the internet for those criteria, and it spit out the answer. Like magic.

How we crunched the numbers

  • Number of private schools in an area
  • The income levels of residents
  • Home prices in an area
  • The number of people in a city who went to college
  • The number of art galleries in a city
  • Number of Whole Foods nearby
  • The number of theaters, playhouses, opera houses and performance arts centers in an area

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased.

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1. Village of Glencoe

Population: 8,728

Hello, Glencoe! You are the snobbiest people in the entire state. You probably already knew that already. So, turn your noses up while we talk about you.

Glencoe residents have the 3rd highest income levels in the state, as households bring in around $184,000 a year. That’s enough to buy a lot of courtside tickets to the Bulls. And, don’t think they won’t post a pic from courtside, too.

Home prices are $927,000 here, which are the 2nd highest in the state.

What about the kids who live here? Odds are many attend private schools, as the area around Glencoe has the 8th highest number of private schools in Illinois.

The number of art galleries and theaters in the area is also in the top 5% in the state.

Add it all up, and the people in Glencoe are far and away the snobbiest people in the state. If you know someone who lives there, share this and tag them. They might see it between martinis at the country club.

2. Village of Winnetka

Population: 12,210

This Chicago burb has the highest income levels ($203,000), the most expensive homes ($951,000), and the highest number of educated people in the state. Almost 90% of the residents of Winnetka are college educated.

There are also the 4th highest number of private schools nearby, and more art galleries per capita than in any other place in the state.

The people of Winnetka should just throw themselves a big snooty parade every year. They wouldn’t even care if you came and threw confetti or not.

3. Village of Oak Brook

Population: 7,905

We’re probably going to see a lot of Chicago suburbs on this list. The highbrows in Oak Brook have the 5th most expensive homes in Illinois ($813,000), and the 11th highest annual incomes ($131,458).

There are only two other cities in Illinois with less art galleries in the area. And Oak Brook has the 8th highest number of theaters and performance arts centers nearby.

4. Village of Wilmette

Population: 27,202

Wilmette is the largest city to make this list. So that means, they have more snobs than in any other place in Illinois.

North of Evanston, Wilmette has the 4th highest number of college graduates in the state. You can be sure when you hang out there, you’ll probably hear a lot of people there name drop on where they got their graduate degree.

The median income here is the 10th highest in the state ($643,000). That’ll buy lots of tickets to opening night at Les Miz every season.

5. Village of Long Grove

Population: 8,031

A half hour north of Chicago is the little enclave of Long Grove, whose upstart residents earn a commanding $191,500 a year. If you happen to know anyone who lives here, you can bet they are pretty snobby.

66% of the people here have a college degree, which is the 12th highest ratio in Illinois. They have a significant number of theaters (31st most) and private schools (11th most), and homes are just about as expensive as you can get.

6. Village of Lincolnshire

Source: Public domain

Population: 7,228

You can bet a lot of the people in Lincolnshire attend theaters, premieres, arts galas and such, since there are more uppity type event centers in the Lincolnshire area than in any other place in Illinois.

And the people who live here can certainly afford it. Households earn about $110,000 a year, and almost 70% of the residents got an undergraduate degree.

7. Village of Barrington

Source: Public domain

Population: 10,739

Barrington residents ‘only’ earn $106,000 a year, and live in homes that are ‘merely’ worth $460,000. And there aren’t as many private schools nearby. Plus, fewer than 62% of them attended college.

You can bet that if someone you know from Barrington is reading this right now, they’ll demand a recount. There’s no way they aren’t as good as the people listed above.

8. Village of Lake Bluff

Population: 6,214

You can bet the snooty people in Lake Bluff have reservations at Les Nomades every Friday night. Families here stack up the bills high to the tune of $146,000 a year, which is the 7th highest in the Land of Lincoln.

Only two other cities are less educated than the people in Lake Bluff. A whopping 80% of the residents here have a college degree.

There are significantly more snobby activities here than in most of the state as well.

9. Village of Northfield

Population: 5,234

People in Northfield value a good education. 76% of them attended college, which is the 6th highest in the state. Plus, there are the 6th most private schools in the general area. Which means their kids will one day take the snooty crown from their parents.

Median incomes here are about $116,000, and homes cost well over $650,000. There was no analysis done on the types of cars Northfield residents drive, but you can bet they aren’t rolling around in Subarus.

Or, when they don’t drive, do the people in Northfield bust out the hand sanitizer when the Metra pulls up?

10. Highland Park

Population: 29,909

Highland Park has the 4th most art galleries per capita in the state, so don’t even try to argue about postmodernism with anyone who lives here. Odds are they know what they’re talking about. Or think they do.

Income levels ($115,000) and home values ($521,000) puts them well ahead of most of their peers in the state.

There You Have It

If you’re looking at cities in Illinois where the residents earn well above the rest of the state, are much smarter than their peers, and who rub elbows with snobs at pretentious events, this is an accurate list.

Who ever said science is a bore?

Mobile users: Here’s a link to the complete data chart.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the most laid back aka ‘unsnobbiest’ places in Illinois, according to science.

  1. East St. Louis (Pop. 27,116)
  2. Centreville (Pop. 5,206)
  3. Robbins (Pop. 5,123)
  4. West Frankfort (Pop. 8,394)
  5. Beardstown (Pop. 6,193)

We also wrote a story on the worst places to live in Illinois. None are Chicago suburbs. Click here to read it.

Disclaimer: This article is an opinion based on data. It should not be taken as fact.

City Population Rank
glencoe 8728 1
winnetka 12210 2
oak brook 7905 3
wilmette 27202 4
long grove 8031 5
lincolnshire 7228 6
barrington 10739 7
lake bluff 6214 8
northfield 5234 9
highland park 29909 10
lake forest 19068 11
oak park 51781 12
deerfield 18452 13
libertyville 20388 14
winfield 9168 15
northbrook 33095 16
glenview 44478 17
evanston 74619 18
hinsdale 16594 19
glen ellyn 27503 20
burr ridge 10590 21
river forest 11174 22
la grange 15563 23
riverside 8859 24
clarendon hills 8434 25
geneva 21588 26
itasca 8494 27
downers grove 48621 28
naperville 142143 29
vernon hills 25144 30
frankfort 17787 31
western springs 12853 32
antioch 14185 33
skokie 64588 34
lisle 22453 35
woodridge 32926 36
elmhurst 44385 37
lake zurich 19679 38
schaumburg 74276 38
park ridge 37266 40
west dundee 7307 41
wheaton 53155 42
st. charles 33046 43
willow springs 5455 44
grayslake 20943 45
bloomingdale 22028 45
highwood 5396 47
lemont 15954 48
savoy 6989 49
palos heights 12446 50
arlington heights 75221 51
wood dale 13778 52
lincolnwood 12538 53
mokena 18424 54
warrenville 13346 55
algonquin 29924 56
countryside 5905 57
crystal lake 40867 58
gurnee 31222 59
batavia 25693 60
westmont 25101 61
north aurora 16231 62
lindenhurst 14415 63
chicago 2702471 64
hawthorn woods 7451 65
lombard 43180 66
hoffman estates 52066 67
edwardsville 24093 68
sugar grove 8831 69
inverness 7457 70
plainfield 39030 70
roselle 22814 72
mundelein 31506 73
cary 18202 74
darien 22163 75
south elgin 21873 76
wauconda 12960 77
niles 29720 78
campton hills 10985 79
new lenox 24369 80
lake villa 8827 81
carol stream 39869 82
buffalo grove 41667 83
flossmoor 9387 84
villa park 22212 85
spring grove 5452 86
mahomet 7230 86
westchester 16684 88
homewood 19526 88
evergreen park 19852 90
west chicago 27079 91
palatine 68338 92
maryville 7480 93
o’fallon 28377 94
orland park 56607 95
fairview heights 16838 95
forest park 14194 97
bartlett 41017 97
homer glen 24428 99
worth 10787 100

About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.