Illinois by the numbers
In Illinois, the median worker earns $50,000 a year, the typical home is worth $250,500 and carries $5,189 of property tax, and the average household pays $132 a month for electricity at 23.85¢ per kilowatt-hour.
Midwest PJM / MISO Retail choice statewide
Energy
Illinois has the largest nuclear fleet of any state and on generation fundamentals should be inexpensive. The increase visible in the data comes from somewhere else entirely: the capacity charge.
Northern Illinois sits in PJM. PJM's capacity auction for the 2025/2026 delivery year cleared at a record price after a rule change and a tightening reserve margin, and northern Illinois cleared even higher than the rest of the market because it was treated as a separate constrained zone. ComEd passes capacity costs through to supply-service customers, so the increase arrived as a single visible step rather than being spread over years.
Downstate Illinois, in MISO, did not experience the same shock. It is another case where a state average hides two very different markets.
The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act also placed carbon-mitigation credits for the state's nuclear plants on ratepayers, though that cost is small next to the capacity move.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, Illinois households used 719 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $132. At the state median wage that is about 5.5 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, gas is still cheaper to run than a heat pump here, by about $11.40 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median Illinois worker earned $50,000 in 2024, 1% above the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Technicians | 3.71× | $102,810 |
| Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.35× | $76,030 |
| Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers | 2.88× | $60,130 |
| Social Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary, All Other | 2.44× | $59,720 |
| Parking Enforcement Workers | 2.33× | $47,150 |
Property tax
The median Illinois homeowner pays $5,189 a year on a home worth $250,500, an effective rate of 2.07% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 97 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in Illinois run at 100.0 where the national average is 100, ranking it #18 of 51. Goods sit at 103.8, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 93.9, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $50,000 therefore buys what $50,000 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (103.6) , Kankakee (96.4) , St. Louis (95.1) , Bloomington (93.5) , Champaign-Urbana (92.7) .
Housing
House prices in Illinois rose 5.5% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +82.7%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: St. Louis (+4.1%) .
Who supplies the power
27 utilities report residential service in Illinois, together serving 3.9 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Illinois: common questions
What does it cost to live in Illinois?
Prices overall run at 100.0 against a national average of 100, with rents at 93.9. The typical home is worth $250,500 and carries $5,189 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 2.07% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $132 a month at 23.85¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $50,000.
What is the property tax rate in Illinois?
The effective rate is 2.07% of home value, from a median bill of $5,189. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 97 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in Illinois?
The median wage of $50,000 buys what $50,000 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line Illinois falls on.
Is Illinois expensive for electricity?
It ranks #12 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 23.85¢ per kilowatt-hour, +29.3% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 35 of 51, because households there use 719 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in Illinois?
$50,000 across all occupations, about $24.04 an hour, covering 6,065,230 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in Illinois?
27 utilities report residential service, the largest being Commonwealth Edison Co with 2.9 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources