Farmer City is a city in De Witt County, Illinois. It has 1,885 residents. Farmer City, Illinois has a quality-of-life score of 40 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #9,354 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Illinois it ranks #430 of 697 cities and towns. It ranks best on pharmacies (high), math scores (high) and public libraries (high). It ranks worst on new business applications (low), effective property tax rate (high) and gyms and fitness centers (low).
40Moderate
Quality-of-life score
#9,354 of 15,651 cities and towns
Illinois
#430 of 697 in IL
Population
1,885 (2020-2024)
Land area
2 mi²
Density
787.1 /mi²
FIPS code
1725414
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety49#7,987/15,637
Economy45#8,621/15,631
Housing57#6,378/14,977
Health46#8,446/15,609
Healthcare19#12,618/15,650
Environment23#11,885/15,453
Education81#3,028/15,649
Infrastructure7#14,563/15,650
Community79#3,324/15,651
Leisure & amenities40#9,427/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Farmer City, Illinois ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “De Witt County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Farmer City, Illinois five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Farmer City, Illinois in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Farmer City is mostly in De Witt County.
Over about five years, Farmer City, Illinois improved on 1 of 12 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 11 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved1
Broadband+9.9 points75.3% → 85.2%
Broadband subscriptions
75.3% → 85.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+9.9 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±9.8 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 28 → 21 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 59% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 12 measures
Change of every measure of Farmer City, Illinois between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
20.6 min2015-2019
26.2 min2020-2024
+5.6 min
Within the margin of error
8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
19.3%2015-2019
17.5%2020-2024
−1.9 points
Within the margin of error
17%
Broadband subscriptions
75.3%2015-2019
85.2%2020-2024
+9.9 points
Improved
59%
Effective property tax rate
2.29%2015-2019
2.31%2020-2024
+0 points
Within the margin of error
14%
High school diploma or higher
88.8%2015-2019
97.1%2020-2024
+8.2 points
Within the margin of error
92%
Home price to income ratio
1.9×2015-2019
2.1×2020-2024
+0.1×
Within the margin of error
71%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3772015-2019
0.3582020-2024
−0.019
Within the margin of error
67%
Median household income
$58,4002015-2019
$67,0672020-2024
+15%
Within the margin of error
23%
Poverty rate
15.6%2015-2019
8.2%2020-2024
−7.4 points
Within the margin of error
88%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
27.7%2015-2019
27.0%2020-2024
−0.7 points
Within the margin of error
61%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
3.6%2015-2019
6.8%2020-2024
+3.2 points
Within the margin of error
18%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Farmer City, Illinois itself moved −1.2 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Household income
763 households (±123)
Farmer City, Illinois
Illinois share
Under $25k17%†126
Under $25k
17%±6.7 points
126 households±55 (90% margin of error)
15%in Illinois
15%in United States
−3.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k17%†128
$25k–50k
17%±6.5 points
128 households±54 (90% margin of error)
16%in Illinois
17%in United States
−10.1 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k20%†155
$50k–75k
20%±7.5 points
155 households±62 (90% margin of error)
15%in Illinois
16%in United States
+4.5 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k16%†120
$75k–100k
16%±7.2 points
120 households±58 (90% margin of error)
13%in Illinois
13%in United States
−0.1 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k24%†184
$100k–150k
24%±11.4 points
184 households±92 (90% margin of error)
18%in Illinois
18%in United States
+7.3 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k3.5%†27
$150k–200k
3.5%±2.7 points
27 households±21 (90% margin of error)
10%in Illinois
9.6%in United States
−0.8 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more3.0%†23
$200k or more
3.0%±2.4 points
23 households±19 (90% margin of error)
14%in Illinois
13%in United States
+2.7 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
Biggest shift since 2015–2019: $200k or more (+2.7 points).
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of De Witt County, the county holding most of Farmer City's residents.
De Witt County has 343 employer establishments, 224 for every 10,000 residents (0.90× the US rate of 248; 0.88× Illinois's), with 3,973 paid employees at an average annual pay of $62,072. The Census Bureau also counts 925 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
343
925 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
224
US 248 · Illinois 255
Paid employees
3,973
Average annual pay
$62,072
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of De Witt County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 15,297 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
