Radiologist Salary in Illinois 2026,
$420,860 Median | BLS Data by City

BLS does not publish an Illinois figure for this occupation — the state cell is at or above the OEWS annual publication ceiling of $239,200 and is therefore suppressed. The national median of $420,860, or $202.34 an hour, is what this page shows in its place. The one published Illinois observation is the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro row at $479,910, which suggests Illinois radiology pays at or above the national level.

Only one Illinois metro clears publication for this occupation: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $479,910. Champaign-Urbana and Rockford are not published by BLS, which is typical for small physician samples in smaller markets. With a single published metro there is no Illinois geographic comparison to make, and the Chicago figure stands as the best available evidence about the state.

The OEWS survey applies an annual wage publication ceiling of $239,200. When a cell's wages sit at or above that threshold the survey flags it rather than reporting a value, because the underlying data cannot be published within the survey's disclosure rules. Radiologist cells are top-coded in many states for exactly this reason. The absence is therefore evidence in itself — it means Illinois radiologists earn well above $239,200 — but it does not permit anyone to state an Illinois median, and this page does not.

It is the honest default and the Chicago metro row supports it, but treat it as a reference rather than a measurement. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $479,910 sits nearly sixty thousand dollars above the national median of $420,860, and peer states cluster near it too — Indiana $430,640, Massachusetts $426,560, Florida $417,690, Utah $417,250 and Iowa $405,220. Radiology compensation is nationally standardised to an unusual degree, which is what makes the national figure a defensible proxy in the absence of a published state one.

It helps, comparatively. Illinois taxes all income at a flat 4.95% with no municipal income tax anywhere in the state, so a radiologist pays the same marginal rate as any other Illinois worker rather than the higher top brackets a progressive-rate state would apply at these income levels. Illinois also exempts retirement income from state income tax entirely. The counterweight is property tax, among the highest effective rates in the country, which is a significant household cost though a modest proportional one at radiology incomes.

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey does not publish annual wage estimates above $239,200. Where an occupation's wages in a given area sit at or above that level, the cell is flagged rather than valued — the survey reports that the figure exceeds the ceiling and stops there. The consequence for high-earning physician specialties is that state-level medians simply do not exist in many states, and any site publishing a specific Illinois radiologist median is either using a different source, modelling a figure, or making one up. This page uses the national figure and labels it.

Two things. First, the national percentile band — $89,010 to $594,410 — describes the national distribution and there is no reason to assume Illinois shares its shape; the single Illinois metro observation of $479,910 hints that Illinois may sit higher than the national middle. Second, the band's own tails are unreliable for radiology: the $89,010 tenth percentile is training-stage income, and the survey excludes partnership distributions, which are how a large share of American radiology income is actually received. No Illinois employment count is published either, so nothing can be said about the size of the state's radiology workforce from this data.

Practice structure first — hospital employment, academic appointment and private group partnership are different economic arrangements, and the last is not fully visible to a wage survey. Subspecialty second: interventional radiology, neuroradiology and breast imaging carry premiums that general diagnostic reading does not. Reading volume and overnight coverage third, which is where teleradiology has changed the Illinois market by letting Chicago-based groups serve downstate hospitals that cannot recruit their own radiologists. Geography contributes something, though with only Chicago-Naperville-Elgin published at $479,910 there is no Illinois gradient to describe.