We all know Chicago, Springfield, Rockford, Kankakee, & Joliet in Illinois. Big cities, with lots of people living there, but have you ever thought about the tiniest towns in Illinois?

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Coming from New York and moving to a small town of 2,500 people I know the feeling all too well of culture shock from moving from a city to a small town. However, there are advantages to living in a small town, you know your neighbors, small school districts mean more one-on-one time with teachers and students, and the silence at night. I have to admit, that last one took me a while to get used to. Listening to crickets over police car sirens was a BIG difference for me.

I was really shocked to know that there are several small towns in Illinois with populations under 1,000. According to city-data.com, here are the top 15 tiniest towns in Illinois:

  1. Hooppole - Population 201
  2. Shumway - Population 201
  3. Spillertown - Population 202
  4. Buncombe - Population 205
  5. Donnellson - Population 205
  6. Keensburg - Population 205
  7. Norris - Population 206
  8. Batchtown - Population 208
  9. New Minden - Population 208
  10. Adair - Population 210
  11. Kinderhook - Population 211
  12. Johns - Population 211
  13. Standard - Population 211
  14. Curran - Population 212
  15. Mill Shoals - Population 212

Smaller town and villages are considered to be known as “Downstate Illinois," so what does that mean. According to Wikipedia says:

Downstate Illinois refers to all of Illinois south of the Chicago metropolitan area. This term is flexible, but because it is generally meant to refer to everything outside the Chicago area; some cities in Northern Illinois, such as Rockford (which is north of Chicago), are considered to be "downstate".

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