ILLINOIS (WMBD) – Looks like Las Vegas isn’t the only “Sin City” in the United States.
According to a recent study from WalletHub, a personal finance website, two Illinois cities were ranked among the “most sinful cities in the U.S.”
WalletHub came to its findings by comparing 182 U.S. cities across seven key dimensions: anger and hatred; jealousy; excesses and vices; greed; lust; vanity; and laziness. The company then identified 38 metrics “of vices and Illicit behavior” within the seven dimensions (e.g., rate of theft, number of fast-food restaurants per capita, gambling statistics, etc.), and graded each metric on a 100-point scale for all 182 cities.
Finally, WalletHub calculated the weighted average of each city across all of its metrics to find the cities’ overall scores.
The two Illinois cities that made the list were Chicago and Aurora, with Chicago ranking as the 8th “most sinful” city in America, and Aurora ranking closer to the middle of the list at 120.
Although Chicago ranked among the top 10 most sinful cities, it was beaten out of the top five spots by just a few cities. Below is the list of the top 10 “most sinful” cities:
- Las Vegas, NV
- St. Louis, MO
- Philadelphia, PA
- Houston, TX
- Atlanta, GA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Denver, CO
- Chicago, IL
- Baton Rouge, LA
- Phoenix, AZ
The study is just one set of data showing a pattern of “sinful” activities. FBI data from 2019 shows Chicago had 25,532 violent crimes that year. Additionally, the city had 62,083 larcenies, or personal thefts, and 9,081 motor vehicle thefts. With Chicago’s population at 2,707,064 as of 2019, that means there were 943 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city.
Meanwhile, the FBI data for Aurora paints a different picture. Aurora had 516 violent crimes in 2019, with 1,638 larcenies and 144 motor vehicle thefts, all with a population of under 200,000. That means Aurora had about 258 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2019.
