City · Fayette County, Illinois

Vandalia, Illinois

Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois. It has 5,796 residents. Vandalia, Illinois has a quality-of-life score of 15 out of 100 (very low), ranking #13,231 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Illinois it ranks #667 of 697 cities and towns. It ranks best on public libraries (high), social associations (high) and home price to income ratio (low). It ranks worst on pharmacies (low), primary care physicians (low) and average weekly wage (low).

15Very low

Quality-of-life score: #13,231 of 15,651 cities and towns
Illinois: #667 of 697 in IL
Population: 5,796 (2020-2024)
Land area: 8 mi²
Density: 711.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 1777317

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety42#9,012/15,637
Economy5#14,853/15,631
Housing56#6,519/14,977
Health35#10,128/15,609
Healthcare5#14,861/15,650
Environment8#14,159/15,453
Education18#12,757/15,649
Infrastructure25#11,680/15,650
Community24#11,868/15,651
Leisure & amenities84#2,574/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Vandalia, Illinois ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Fayette 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.

Strengths

Public libraries · high1.9 /10k
90/100Illinois 0.6 /10kUnited States 0.5 /10k2024Institute of Museum and Library ServicesFayette County value
Social associations · high14.6 /10k
90/100Illinois 9.8 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteFayette County value
Home price to income ratio · low2.2×
88/100Illinois 3.2×United States 4.1×2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25077
Gyms and fitness centers · high1.9 /10k
87/100Illinois 1.1 /10kUnited States 1.3 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsFayette County value
Arts, entertainment and recreation · high5.8 /10k
79/100Illinois 4.8 /10kUnited States 5.5 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsFayette County value
Public EV charging ports · high9.1 /10k
79/100Illinois 4.8 /10kUnited States 7.6 /10kOct 2026U.S. Department of EnergyFayette County value

Weaknesses

Pharmacies · low0.5 /10k
3/100Illinois 2.0 /10kUnited States 1.8 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsFayette County value
Primary care physicians · low19 /100k
4/100Illinois 82 /100kUnited States 76 /100k2022University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteFayette County value
Average weekly wage · low$899
5/100Illinois $1,539United States $1,5142025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsFayette County value
Job growth · low-2.9%
7/100Illinois 0.0%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataFayette County value
Preventable hospital stays · high4,139 /100k
7/100Illinois 3,343 /100kUnited States 2,769 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteFayette County value
Access to exercise opportunities · low44.3%
7/100Illinois 90.6%United States 84.5%2022 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteFayette County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationFalling
6,909 (2015-2019) → 5,796 (2020-2024)
−16%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
New homes permittedWorsening
0.5 /1k (2021) → 0.0 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−100%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Child poverty rateImproving
35.9% (2015-2019) → 26.1% (2020-2024)
−9.8 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
75.0% (2015-2019) → 82.1% (2020-2024)
+7.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
High school diploma or higherImproving
79.2% (2015-2019) → 85.4% (2020-2024)
+6.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 88.0% → 89.6%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
8.5% (2015-2019) → 14.0% (2020-2024)
+5.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%

What changed in five years

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.

Over about five years, Vandalia, Illinois improved on 1 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 13 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

Bachelor's++5.5 points8.5% → 14.0%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Vandalia, Illinois between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	19.0 min2015-2019	19.1 min2020-2024	+0.1 min	Within the margin of error	46%
Bachelor's degree or higher	8.5%2015-2019	14.0%2020-2024	+5.5 points	Improved	71%
Broadband subscriptions	75.0%2015-2019	82.1%2020-2024	+7.2 points	Within the margin of error	45%
Child poverty rate	35.9%2015-2019	26.1%2020-2024	−9.8 points	Within the margin of error	81%
Effective property tax rate	2.05%2015-2019	1.71%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Within the margin of error	79%
High school diploma or higher	79.2%2015-2019	85.4%2020-2024	+6.2 points	Within the margin of error	87%
Home price to income ratio	2.3×2015-2019	2.2×2020-2024	−0.1×	Within the margin of error	84%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4362015-2019	0.4752020-2024	+0.039	Within the margin of error	21%
Median household income	$36,3952015-2019	$45,4692020-2024	+25%	Within the margin of error	44%
Poverty rate	21.5%2015-2019	22.2%2020-2024	+0.7 points	Within the margin of error	36%
Rent as share of income	28.1%2015-2019	28.9%2020-2024	+0.8 points	Within the margin of error	49%
Rent-burdened households	43.8%2015-2019	47.8%2020-2024	+4 points	Within the margin of error	41%
Unemployment rate	6.5%2015-2019	6.0%2020-2024	−0.5 points	Within the margin of error	60%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	10.6%2015-2019	8.7%2020-2024	−1.9 points	Within the margin of error	67%

“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.

Cities and towns like Vandalia, Illinois five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Vandalia, 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.

For comparison, Vandalia, Illinois itself moved −1.4 points in standing on average over the same 10 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.

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).

Age and sex

5,796 residents (±278)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

2,094 households (±166)

Vandalia, Illinois
Illinois share

Under $25k24%†510
$25k–50k28%593
$50k–75k21%†445

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

2,094 households (±166)

Vandalia, Illinois
Illinois share

Own67%1,393
Rent33%701

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

2,096 workers (±266)

Vandalia, Illinois
Illinois share

Drive alone82%1,713
Carpool4.3%†91
Public transit0.6%†13

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.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Fayette County, the county holding most of Vandalia's residents.

Fayette County has 477 employer establishments, 227 for every 10,000 residents (0.91× the US rate of 248; 0.89× Illinois's), with 4,556 paid employees at an average annual pay of $40,359. The Census Bureau also counts 1,324 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 477; 1,324 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 227; US 248 · Illinois 255
Paid employees: 4,556
Average annual pay: $40,359; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Fayette County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	37	17.6	1.14×About typical	168	$60,298	138
Restaurants and other eating places	32	15.2	0.83×About typical	453	$17,457	—
Religious organizations	28	13.3	2.40×More than typical	78	$15,949	—
Ambulatory health care services	24	11.4	0.55×Fewer than typical	258	$50,787	46
Truck transportation	19	9	1.79×More than typical	52	$50,462	39
Full-service restaurants	18	8.6	1.11×About typical	141	$17,426	—
Automotive repair and maintenance	17	8.1	1.61×More than typical	72	$36,000	30
Foundation, structure and building exterior contractors	14	6.7	2.11×More than typical	55	$53,636	25
Limited-service restaurants	14	6.7	0.83×About typical	312	$17,471	—
Building equipment contractors	12	5.7	0.95×About typical	43	$63,070	20
Gasoline stations	12	5.7	1.76×More than typical	129	$27,845	—
Banks and credit unions	11	5.2	1.62×More than typical	153	$49,418	—

Rank places for an industry Open Fayette County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 21,033 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.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $20.4K of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Vandalia, Illinois: $3.52 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $20.4K; +338% vs FY2025
Per resident: $3.52; US $1,994
Sole-source: 0.0%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.0%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services$13.6K67%
Federal Aviation Administration$6,73333%

Top recipients

BLANKENSHIP CONSTRUCTION CO$13.6K67%
MCNEAL PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, INC.$6,73333%

Spending by fiscal year

26.3KFY2017
6.1KFY2018
27FY2019
84.8KFY2022
414.9FY2023
28.1KFY2024
4.6KFY2025
20.4KFY2026

Top industries (NAICS)

Other heavy and civil engineering construction · 2379$13.6K67%
Nonresidential building construction · 2362$6,73333%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Vandalia, Illinois, so they do not add up across cities.

Vandalia, Illinois's figures are part of those of Fayette County, IL ($320.7K in FY2026), never added to them: 6.4% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Vandalia is mostly in Fayette County.

See federal money in Fayette County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Vandalia, Illinois is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Mary E. MillerR-IL-15 · 100% of residentsWith party 99%Missed 3.9%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Fayette County28100% of residents

Other cities and towns in Fayette County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/1777317

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends