Economy

A new report reveals that prospective homebuyers in Illinois are more easily able to afford a new home than homebuyers in any other U.S. state are.

Visual Capitalist ranks Illinois as the easiest state in the nation for typical homebuyers to purchase a new home. According to the report, Illinois households have the largest income surplus among the states where median incomes are high enough to cover the cost of a median-priced home.

When planning your next road trip, have some peace of mind knowing that Illinois boasts one of the safest commutes in the country.

A report from Beck and Beck, a car accident law firm, analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and determined that Illinois ranked 10^th in safest commutes.

The Consumer News and Business Channel ranked Illinois at No. 12 in their 2026 Top States for Business list, the highest ranking in the state’s history.

Since 2019, the state has risen in annual ranking from No. 30 to No. 12, one of the largest improvements any state in the country has seen during this period.

Illinois ranks high in major categories including No. 3 in infrastructure, No. 7 in education and No. 12 in technology and innovation and access to capital, allowing the state to climb near the top.

Illinois is bordered by 880 miles of rivers and has 87,110 miles of rivers and streams within its borders. The Mississippi River, Ohio River and Wabash River are the bordering rivers of the state. The Mississippi River forms the western border of Illinois in a 581 mile stretch of its course and, as such, is the longest river in the state.

The Ice Age had major impacts on Illinois and its rivers. Glaciers blocked and buried some rivers and created new ones. Some ancient rivers, such as the Teays, Cumberland, Paw Paw and Ticona, no longer exist. The Missouri River once flowed in much of what is now the Mississippi River bed but was blocked and filled during the Kansas glacier and diverted to a new channel. The Teays River was diverted south of the glacier and became the Ohio River.

If someone said that only one U.S. president has a patent and asked you to guess which one it was, who would you say? Thomas Jefferson? Theodore Roosevelt? No, the answer is Abraham Lincoln.

With all of Lincoln’s other accomplishments, it is understandable that his patent flies under the radar, especially because it was before he became president. But it is no less impressive.