50 most populous school districts in IL

Illinois has 865 school districts, divided into three categories based on the grade level of schools in the local education agency: unit (sometimes called unified) school districts, high school districts, and elementary school (K-8) districts.

An example of a unit school district is Naperville Community Unit District 203 in the far western suburbs of Chicago. Students who live within the district’s boundaries can attend a public school run by the district in first grade and in 12th grade. The district runs 14 elementary schools, five junior high schools, and two high schools.

An example of a high school district is Township High School District 214, based in Arlington Heights in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. The district runs six high schools, and each student comes from one of several elementary school districts in the area:

Elementary school districts that feed into Twp. H.S. Dist. 214 in Arlington Heights (Statistical Atlas.com)

In the case of District 214, Community Consolidated School District 59 is contained entirely within the boundaries of District 214. That is, every student in District 59 for elementary school and middle school is also in District 214 for high school. But on the western edge of District 214, only a small percentage of students who attend elementary and middle school in Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15 will attend one of District 214’s high schools. The large majority of students from District 15 live within the boundaries for Township High School District 211, which is based in Palatine.

The following list shows the name of the public school district, the number of people who live within the district’s boundaries, and the number of households in the district.

1. Chicago Public School District 299; 2,706,068; 1,028,736
2. Township High School District 214; 252,095; 96,936
3. Township High School District 211; 236,815; 88,986
4. School District U-46; 233,303; 76,067
5. Rockford School District 205; 192,107; 75,465
6. Glenbard Township High School District 87; 166,315; 61,496
7. J. Sterling Morton High School District 201; 158,890; 46,261
8. Consolidated High School District 230; 156,449; 58,135
9. Maine Township High School District 207; 145,565; 55,032
10. Schaumburg Community Consolidated School District 54 (elementary); 134,184; 50,463
11. Joliet Township High School District 204; 128,613; 44,199
12. Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204; 128,571; 43,348
13. Proviso Township High School District 209; 126,723; 44,513
14. Community High School District 218; 122,193; 46,497
15. Plainfield School District 202; 120,857; 35,939
16. Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15 (elementary); 118,837; 44,798
17. Thornton Township High School District 205; 114,771; 40,759
18. Springfield School District 186; 113,908; 50,520
19. Community Unit School District 300; 110,756; 37,748
20. Community High School District 99; 109,627; 43,525
21. Belleville Township High School District 201; 108,613; 43,999
22. Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210; 104,762; 34,584
23. Peoria School District 150; 101,889; 41,684
24. Community High School District 155; 96,134; 33,008
25. Niles Township Community High School District 219; 95,848; 34,067
26. McLean County Unit School District 5; 95,657; 34,350
27. Naperville Community Unit District 203; 95,198; 33,896
28. Champaign Community Unit School District 4; 94,822; 37,596
29. Bremen Community High School District 228; 93,723; 33,244
30. Valley View Community Unit School District 365U; 92,787; 28,116
31. Glenbrook High School District 225; 86,150; 31,940
32. Joliet Public School District 86 (elementary); 84,167; 28,510
33. Cicero School District 99 (elementary); 84,042; 21,300
34. Waukegan Community Unit School District 60; 83,653; 26,876
35. Evanston Community Consolidated School District 65 (elementary); 83,179; 31,790
36. Evanston Township High School District 202; 83,179; 31,790
37. DuPage High School District 88; 83,011; 29,834
38. Aurora East Unit School District 131; 82,469; 23,731
39. Community Unit School District 200; 79,007; 27,825
40. Lockport Township High School District 205; 76,100; 26,956
41. Aurora West Unit School District 129; 76,061; 25,679
42. Oswego Community Unit School District 308; 75,976; 23,721
43. Hinsdale Township High School District 86; 75,150; 28,062
44. Decatur School District 61; 72,224; 30,056
45. Lyons Township High School District 204; 69,556; 25,540
46. Rich Township High School District 227; 69,203; 26,509
47. Warren Township High School District 121; 68,591; 24,535
48. St. Charles Community Unit School District 303; 67,959; 23,651
49. Community Consolidated School District 59; 65,661; 25,000
50. Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 (elementary); 65,140; 25,523

Data come from the US Census Bureau in the 2010 (latest) census, and from the 2009-2013 (latest) American Community Survey.