Wheaton is tied for 29th of 162 on a list of best and worst cities for families in Illinois, according to a study by WalletHub, a financial website.
WalletHub looked at 21 key indicators of ideal family conditions in developing the rankings and such categories as affordability, socioeconomic environment, family life and fun, education and health and safety.
“I think it’s a good indication of the quality of life in Wheaton,” said Mayor Michael Gresk. “It’s why we have a wonderful school district and park district. We can maintain a higher property value and a higher tax base, and that’s what drives the quality of your living standard.”
Wheaton’s overall score on a 100-point scale was 63.97, tied with New Lenox. It ranked 74 of 162 cities for family fun, 31 for education, health and safety, 45 for affordability and 23 for socioeconomic environment.
Each category was assigned a value between 0 and 100, with 100 the best value and 0 the worst. Overall scores were calculated for each city and a final ranking was made using the weighted averages, according to WalletHub.
Under family and fun, the study looked at the number of playgrounds per 100,000 residents and the number of families with children younger than 18. Under education, health and safety, the study weighed such items as high school graduation rate, air quality, number of pediatricians per 100,000 residents, percentage of children lacking health insurance, and the violent and property crime rates per 100,000 residents.
For the affordability category, the study analyzed the cost of housing and general affordability. For socioeconomic environment, it looked at items such as the separation and divorce rates, percentage of two-parent families, percentage of households receiving food stamps, unemployment rate, wealth gap and foreclosure rate.
The top city on the list was Morton, followed by Deerfield. Naperville ranked 10 and Glen Ellyn ranked 18. The lowest ranked city was East St. Louis.
Wheaton scored fewer than 9 points behind Morton, which Gresk called a “real fine slicing of statistics.” While he was happy with Wheaton’s ranking, he said he puts more stock in citizen satisfaction surveys. One conducted about two years ago, he said, showed the vast majority of city services, ranging from recreational activities to snow plowing, received a citizen approval rating of more than 80 percent.
“That means a whole lot more to us than what an outside organization says,” he said.
Tribune reporter Annemarie Mannion contributed to this story.
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