Survey shows Naperville residents highly satisfied with city

Naperville, Illinois, is known as one of the best cities in the country to live in — and most of its residents agree. A new 2026 community survey asked thousands of residents how they feel about life in their city. The results showed that people are happy with many things, like parks, safety, and schools. However, residents also pointed to areas that need work, especially the cost of living and getting around town without a car.

The city sent the survey to 5,000 randomly chosen households, and 760 people sent back their answers. City leaders will use the results to update Naperville's community priorities plan. That plan helps make sure the city's goals match what residents actually want. It's an important tool for deciding where to spend money and focus attention in the coming years.

Mayor Scott Wehrli said one of the biggest things he noticed in the results was how much people care about costs. He said residents like many things about the city, but they are also very sensitive to prices. 'As we look through these different items, I'm certainly going to be cognizant of what the impact is going to be on people's ability to afford to live in our city,' Wehrli said. He wants to make sure the city doesn't price people out as it grows and improves.

The overall numbers were very positive. A full 95% of people who answered the survey said they were satisfied with Naperville as a place to live. Another 96% said they were satisfied with it as a place to raise a family. Those are among the highest scores a city can receive in this type of survey.

The survey was divided into ten categories, including safety, parks, housing, education, and transportation. The highest scores went to public safety, parks and recreation, the local economy, the natural environment, and health and wellness. Each of those areas scored 90% or higher, meaning at least nine out of ten people rated them as good or excellent. That's a strong sign that residents feel well taken care of in those parts of city life.

The lowest score went to mobility, which covers how easy it is to get around Naperville. That category includes driving, walking, biking, and using public transit, as well as city services like snow removal. Mobility earned a score of just 63%. While that's still more than half of respondents rating it positively, it stood out as the weakest area compared to everything else.

The survey also looked at how satisfaction has changed since the last community survey in 2023. Three areas improved the most: residents feeling healthier overall (up 9%), feeling safe from floods, fires, or natural disasters (up 6%), and the city attracting people from diverse backgrounds (up 6%). Those gains show that some parts of city life have gotten noticeably better in just three years.

However, some areas got worse. The biggest drop was in satisfaction with employment opportunities, or job availability. In 2023, 84% of residents were satisfied with job opportunities in Naperville, but by 2026 that number had fallen to 60%. Mayor Wehrli said this makes it even more important for the city to create new jobs and build up commercial areas like the Interstate 88 corridor.

On the topic of affordability, the survey asked about the cost of housing, food, health care, childcare, and overall cost of living. Affordable housing and the overall cost of living received the lowest scores, with only 31% and 37% of respondents satisfied, respectively. Mayor Wehrli said the city needs to keep working to make sure working families and young people can afford to move in and stay. Those numbers have not improved much since the 2023 survey.

When it came to getting around, the results depended a lot on how people travel. Traveling by car scored 78% and walking came in at 75%, but biking scored 52% and public transit scored just 32%. Mayor Wehrli said he hopes a new agency called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority will lead to better transit options for Naperville and nearby suburbs. City leaders plan to use the survey results as they update the community priorities plan in the months ahead.