Highland, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Helvetia Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62249. The Survey maps it on the Highland quadrangle. 9,991 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 551 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresHighland grew from 9,919 to 9,991 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 9,919 | |
| 2020 | 9,991 | +72 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1906 USGS Breese quadrangle1:62500
- 1907 USGS Breese quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Highland quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Carlyle Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
85 words on this townshipThe county-history sources names this settlement in its chapter on Helvetia Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Helvetia Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Highland: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
41 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland in 41 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 24 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 2 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Highland | $50,000 | A small tornado formed near Highland High School causing minor damage, but a lot of shook up people. The tornado passed over the school gymnasium ripping 6 air conditioner units off their bases. Minor damage also occurred to the roof of the gym and to the ceiling of the second story classrooms. The tornado then crossed Route 160 causing some minor damage to farm outbuildings. |
| April 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | $50,000 | A billboard sign built to withstand wind gusts to 60 mph was blown over. Numerous trees in the area were also knocked down. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | $15,000 | Local law enforcement reported scattered trees and power lines down across the city. One vehicle was seriously damaged by a downed tree. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | $7,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew off some shingles from the roof of a house as well as several tree limbs. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds knocked one tree down. The tree took out a transformer and power pole as it fell. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds snapped one large tree branch from a large healthy tree. |
| March 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Additional significant damage was noted to the south of the tornado path, likely associated with a strong surge of the rear flank downdraft. This damage, with straight line windspeeds nearing 80 to locally 90 mph, included two large barns that were destroyed, along with some large trees that were toppled in a concentrated area across two neighborhoods off Poplar Street. |
| March 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds caused moderate roof damage to a business on the northside of Highland. Also, several large tree branches were snapped off. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs just north northwest of town. |
| February 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew off some siding on a few homes as well as some shingles in the Highland area. A few small trees were blown down in Highland. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous large tree limbs. |
| February 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several power lines, tree limbs and signs througout town. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree onto Iberg Road near Sugar Creek. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds blew over a machine shed about 2 miles south of Highland on Illinois Route 160. Some equipment that had been inside the shed were damaged. Also, another building on the same farm had about a third of its western wall blown out and a 14 foot sliding door on the shed was blown 500 feet off its rollers and over the top of another building. Several power lines and numerous tree limbs were blown down in the area. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Numerous large tree limbs were blown down around town. |
| October 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Numerous large trees broken off half way up the trunks. Also, numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down. |
| April 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Highland | - | The tornado first formed near the intersection of Ellis and Acorn Roads where it destroyed two grain bins. The tornado traveled across an open field and then hit a farm one quarter mile west of Highway 160. The home sustained minor roof, window and siding damage. A large machine shed was destroyed with debris thrown three quarter to one mile to the northeast. A garage was also destroyed. A number of power poles wee snapped off just south of town along Old Trenton Road. A large ranch home just north of this location sustained considerable roof and window damage. Several large trees in the area were also downed. |
| November 2005 | Hail | Highland | - | Local law enforcement reported nickel size hail. |
| September 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Several power poles were broken by thunderstorm winds along Route 143 in Highland. The sign at a Dairy Queen on Route 143 was destroyed. Some trees and power lines were also downed in other parts of town as well. |
| May 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts blew a tractor trailer over just east of I-70 and northeast of Highland. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm winds uprooted trees, downed large limbs, and pulled down power lines in Highland. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts caused scattered damage in the Arkansas and Buckeye road areas south of Highland. One garage door was damaged and several windows broken at one home. A tin roofed pole barn suffered significant damage. Several trees in the area were also damaged. |
| April 1998 | Hail | Highland | - | Spotters reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| April 2012 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| September 2008 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| February 1999 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
| April 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highland | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Highland | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastopol | 4.2 miles | 11 | |
| Saint Morgan | 5.4 miles | 12 | |
| Saint Jacob | 5.4 miles | 16 | |
| Grantfork | 6.3 miles | 11 | |
| Marine | 6.5 miles | 14 | |
| Kaufman | 10.2 miles | 14 | |
| Alhambra | 10.8 miles | 11 | |
| Green Castle | 11.0 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Highland | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q576279 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 410218. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





