Why Does this Illinois Place Have a Growth Rate of 4,000 Percent?

There is a narrative that the population of Illinois is shrinking. Don't tell that to one place in the Land of Lincoln that has an incredible growth rate of nearly 4,000 percent making it the fastest-growing area in Illinois.

My eyes had to do a double-take when I first saw this. There is a statistical website called USA.com and I love it for one simple reason. It's just numbers with no opinion or narrative. I got curious about Illinois population growth and asked their database to run the numbers. The result was stunning for one place in particular. Technically, it's categorized as a village in Illinois. It has a growth rate of exactly 3,982.26 percent. 

This is Pingree Grove, Illinois. I think I know what's going on here. If you look at this Illinois place on a map, you'll see it lies on the outskirts of the greater Chicagoland area.

It's just close enough to Chicago to be convenient, but far enough away to be safe and relatively quiet.

Technically by statistics alone, Pingree Grove is the fastest-growing place in Illinois and there isn't even a close second. One thing to consider though about statistics. A big reason why you see such a mammoth percentage of grown for Pingree Grove is it was tiny to begin with. The estimated population is now over 11,000 when it was only around 2,500 a few years ago. All that considered, there's still no ignoring the explosive growth of this very trendy part of the Chicago area. You could do much worse than making it your home city if you can afford it. I checked Realtor.com and there aren't many homes available there for less than half a million.