Wonder Lake is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, part of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area. It has 4,292 residents. Wonder Lake, Illinois has a quality-of-life score of 72 out of 100 (high), ranking #4,353 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Illinois it ranks #148 of 697 cities and towns. It ranks best on hospital quality rating (high), new homes permitted (high) and violent crime rate (low). It ranks worst on effective property tax rate (high), average commute time (high) and days with unhealthy air (high).
72High
Quality-of-life score
#4,353 of 15,651 cities and towns
Illinois
#148 of 697 in IL
Population
4,292 (2020-2024)
Land area
5 mi²
Density
854.7 /mi²
FIPS code
1782855
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety99#151/15,637
Economy65#5,486/15,631
Housing66#5,144/14,977
Health79#3,313/15,609
Healthcare62#5,965/15,650
Environment18#12,730/15,453
Education49#7,992/15,649
Infrastructure60#6,212/15,650
Community69#4,783/15,651
Leisure & amenities61#6,093/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Wonder Lake, Illinois ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “McHenry 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 Wonder Lake, Illinois five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Wonder Lake, 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.
Jobs and pay
What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.
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: Wonder Lake is mostly in McHenry County.
Over about five years, Wonder Lake, Illinois improved on 0 of 8 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 8 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.
Improved0
No measure improved by more than its margin of error.
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 8 measures
Change of every measure of Wonder Lake, Illinois between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
37.6 min2015-2019
37.0 min2020-2024
−0.6 min
Within the margin of error
55%
Bachelor's degree or higher
27.4%2015-2019
21.8%2020-2024
−5.6 points
Within the margin of error
6%
Broadband subscriptions
92.0%2015-2019
95.4%2020-2024
+3.4 points
Within the margin of error
22%
Effective property tax rate
3.11%2015-2019
2.44%2020-2024
−0.7 points
Within the margin of error
96%
High school diploma or higher
97.7%2015-2019
95.7%2020-2024
−2 points
Within the margin of error
15%
Home price to income ratio
2.2×2015-2019
2.7×2020-2024
+0.5×
Within the margin of error
49%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3722015-2019
0.4012020-2024
+0.029
Within the margin of error
27%
Median household income
$87,9382015-2019
$94,6552020-2024
+7.6%
Within the margin of error
14%
“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, Wonder Lake, Illinois itself moved −10.3 points in standing on average over the same 8 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
1,639 households (±153)
Wonder Lake, Illinois
Illinois share
Under $25k6.6%†108
Under $25k
6.6%±3.5 points
108 households±58 (90% margin of error)
15%in Illinois
15%in United States
−6.6 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k9.6%†158
$25k–50k
9.6%±5.8 points
158 households±95 (90% margin of error)
16%in Illinois
17%in United States
−1.7 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k14%†232
$50k–75k
14%±5.1 points
232 households±87 (90% margin of error)
15%in Illinois
16%in United States
−8.8 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k21%†352
$75k–100k
21%±10.4 points
352 households±173 (90% margin of error)
13%in Illinois
13%in United States
+9.7 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k23%†377
$100k–150k
23%±7.8 points
377 households±133 (90% margin of error)
18%in Illinois
18%in United States
−4.8 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k15%†241
$150k–200k
15%±7.3 points
241 households±121 (90% margin of error)
10%in Illinois
9.6%in United States
+7.2 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more10%†171
$200k or more
10%±5.2 points
171 households±86 (90% margin of error)
14%in Illinois
13%in United States
+5.1 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
Wonder Lake, Illinois is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of McHenry County, the county holding most of Wonder Lake's residents.
McHenry County has 8,140 employer establishments, 260 for every 10,000 residents (1.05× the US rate of 248; 1.02× Illinois's), with 87,684 paid employees at an average annual pay of $54,868. The Census Bureau also counts 27,257 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
8,140
27,257 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
260
US 248 · Illinois 255
Paid employees
87,684
Average annual pay
$54,868
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of McHenry 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: 313,421 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.
