100 Most Redneck Towns in Illinois

Except for our friends buying arugula, pine nuts and fennel at the Whole Foods.

Outside the city of Chicago, a metropolis of world-class stature, the Prairie State boasts a strong redneck heritage. How redneck are we?

Well, from time to time some folks have actually called for Chicago to be kicked out of Illinois. Historically known as the Southern Illinois Secession Movement, the most recently publicized demand came from two downstate lawmakers in 2011.

About 1.2 million people live in the southern tip of Illinois, known as Little Egypt, a region culturally and politically as redneck as any state in Dixie. And a fair number of the most-redneck towns in Illinois are situated here.

Further boosting our redneck bonafides, in 2003, Gretchen Wilson, raised in a trailer park in Pocahontas, Illinois, recorded the hit single “Redneck Woman,” and went on to win a Grammy in 2004.

While the 618 area code may be the state capital of Redneck Illinois, our redneck-edness actually permeates the entire state.

Here are the 100 Most Redneck Illinois Towns, as determined by our friends at RoadSnacks.net. Their criteria for a redneck town — a low high school graduation rate and the prevalence of dive bars, mobile home parks, tobacco stores, guns-and-ammo stores, as well as Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops and Dollar Generals.

» RELATED: 150 Worst Illinois Towns to Call Home

The resulting list of 100 includes some no-brainers and some surprises. (I mean, how can River Forest and Palos Heights be more redneck than, say, Pana or Taylorville?)

The top 5 redneck Illinois towns, as judged by RoadSnacks.net, include:

• Vandalia: “Way down on I-70, about an hour east of St. Louis, you’ll find this special enclave of redneckery. You have lots of places to get fishing gear/bait, per capita. And that makes sense, because the rednecks here get to enjoy trolling in the Kaskaskia River, which goes right through town. And, there’s several mobile home parks in the area. Nothing’s more redneck than grabbing a catfish out of the river and frying it up at the trailer park, while shooting guns at the bug zapper.

• Mount Vernon: “If you look up rednecks in Illinois, there’s lots of chatter about how Mount Vernon is redneck central. And that’s putting it lightly. Mount Vernon has one of the highest percentage of places in the area to buy guns and ammo. And, it’s way out in the sticks (it’s along I-57 way down by Carbondale).”

• Litchfield: “More than 1 in 4 necks here didn’t graduate high school, and it’s 99% white and very blue collar. In Litchfield, you have your own Walmart, but there’s also another one 10 minutes away in the next town over. A real redneck knows that when one Walmart is out of ammo, they can drive to the other one. Plus, there are about 5 Golden Corrals within about an hour’s drive.”

• Chester: “Dern it, Chester! Think of how much higher you would have ranked on this list if more of you had ditched class back in the day like a lot of the other kids in your class. ... Chester isn’t too far west of Carbondale, right along the Mississippi.”

• Jacksonville: “Jacksonville was ranked as the number one fishing spot in Illinois by Field and Stream Magazine. You can tell why; there are a lot of areas to throw in a line here, including Lake Jacksonville, which has produced some great channel cats, largemouth bass and bluegill.”

North Riverside, Bridgeview, Winthrop Harbor, Schiller Park and Countryside are listed as the most redneck of the Chicago-area suburbs.

Among the surprises in RoadSnacks.net’s top 100? River Forest, Palos Heights, Lincolnshire, Frankfort, Lincolnwood and Barrington.

The Top 100 Redneck Towns in Illinois

as ranked by RoadSnacks.net, with population

1. Vandalia, 6,096

2. Mount Vernon, 15,051

3. Litchfield, 7,086

4. Chester, 8,523

5. Jacksonville, 19,401

6. Harvard, 9,172

7. Jerseyville, 8,833

8. Pontiac, 12,210

9. Effingham, 12,297

10. Antioch, 14,185

11. North Riverside, 6,920

12. Plano, 10,602

13. Winthrop Harbor, 6,752

14. Bridgeview, 16,394

15. Schiller Park, 11,782

16. Countryside, 5,905

17. Itasca, 8,494

18. Harwood Heights. 8,573

19. Rochelle, 9,578

20. Norridge, 14,656

21. Evergreen Park, 19,852

22. River Forest, 11,174

23. Chicago Ridge. 14,303

24. Forest Park, 14,194

25. Dixon, 15,332

26. Carlinville, 5,799

27. Rantoul, 12,880

27. Roscoe, 10,679

29. Carmi, 5,351

30. South Beloit, 7,917

31. Lincolnshire, 7,228

32. Mattoon, 18,162

33. Wood Dale, 13,778

34. Worth, 10,787

35. East Alton, 6,309

36. Summit, 11,166

37. Mendota, 7,138

38. Harrisburg, 8,962

39. Sycamore, 17,505

40. Princeton, 7,831

41. Highwood, 5,396

42. Palos Heights, 12,446

43. Wilmington, 5,918

44. Franklin Park, 18,333

45. Watseka, 5,630

46. DuQuoin, 6,089

47. Sandwich, 7,563

48. Genoa, 5,693

49. Hickory Hills, 14,355

50. Lincolnwood, 12,538

51. Monee, 5,099

52. Yorkville, 17,055

53. Pana, 5,850

54. Berkeley, 5,189

55. Northfield, 5,234

55. River Grove, 10,224

57. Savoy, 6,989

58. Midlothian, 14,788

59. Crestwood, 10,951

60. Coal City, 5,346

61. Lake Bluff, 6,214

62. Northlake, 12,287

63. Spring Valley, 5,530

64. Hillside, 8,136

64. Manteno, 9,253

66. Clinton, 7,007

67. Salem, 7,407

68. Frankfort, 17,787

69. Fairfield, 5,285

70. Silvis, 7,474

71. Barrington, 10,739

72. Fairview Heights, 16,838

73. Shelbyville, 5,267

74. Lyons, 10,651

75. Olney, 9,032

76. Taylorville, 11,768

77. Posen, 5,975

78. Broadview, 7,938

79. Lake Zurich, 19,679

80. Hampshire, 6,174

81. Riverside, 8,859

82. Monticello, 5,297

83. Greenville, 6,941

84. Benton, 7,284

85. Marseilles, 5,022

86. Gilberts, 6,786

86. Robinson, 7,656

88. Lincoln, 14,259

89. Sterling, 15,367

90. Murphysboro, 8,166

91. Ottawa, 19,258

92. Fox Lake, 10,768

93. Streator, 13,068

94. Peoria Heights, 6,216

95. Shorewood, 15,611

96. Morris, 13,896

97. Geneseo, 6,604

98. Peru, 10,189

99. Markham, 12,514

100. Creve Coeur, 5,460