The press on living in Illinois has not been good. Let's be honest, it has been horrible. That's why this new survey surprises me and for several reasons.

U.S. News & World Report just released their new 'Best Places to Live in the U.S.' survey and I really can't believe that Illinois, the state people are moving out of at an incredibly high rate, has three cities on the list.

Before sharing what places made the list, let's cover the 'how' three Illinois cities made this list.

How the 'Best Places To Live List' is Compiled

U.S. News people to share what factors are most important when choosing a place to live. From those responses, U.S. News created 5 different categories by which to judge a city.

Catherine Yeulet
Catherine Yeulet
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They are:

  1. Value of living there
  2. Quality of life
  3. Health of the job market
  4. Whether people want to live there
  5. Whether people are actually moving there
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Wavebreakmedia Ltd
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It's those last two categories that surprise me the most when seeing that Illinois is on this list at all.

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The 3 Illinois Cities on the '150 Best Places to Live' List:

  • Peoria #87
  • Chicago #102
  • Rockford #133

While I'm surprised to see us on the list, I'm not surprised at how low on the list we are. The good news:

There are worse places to live than Illinois.

For the second consecutive year, Boulder, Colorado was named the place to live due to high quality of life, a robust job market and high desirability scores, said U.S. News.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina was #2 and Huntsville, Alabama, #3.

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