Carlinville is a city in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Federal Census, the population was 5,685. It is the county seat of Macoupin County.
As a quaint, quiet rural community, Carlinville is a quintessential example of small town America. Recognized federally for its scenic beauty as a "Tree City," Carlinville is home to many tourist sites, annual festivals, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants/diners where its local flavor thrives.
Carlinville is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church.

History
Named after a former governor of Illinois (Thomas Carlin, governor 1838-1842), Carlinville has long been a site of Illinois history. A site of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Carlinville has also played host to many other presidential hopefuls via campaign stops at a time in American history when railway routes produced many visits by politicos. Perhaps the largest and most important hallmark of Carlinville's history is its courthouse. Built in 1870, and designed by famous state capitol building architect Elijah E. Myers, the construction of Carlinville's courthouse produced its candidacy for the location of the State Capitol.
 In the early 1900s Carlinville became the site of a great many Sears Catalog Homes. An entire neighborhood was constructed of the homes and was funded, in 1918, by Standard Oil of Indiana for its mineworkers in Carlinville (at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars US). Today 152 of the original 156 homes still exist, the largest single repository of Sears Catalog Homes in the United States.
 Further, many notable people have come from Carlinville. Among them, the American entomologist Charles Robertson carried out what is still the single most intensive study of flower-visiting insects of a single locality, culminating in a 221-page book published in 1928 under the title Flowers and Insects. From among the specimens he collected in the process of doing this study, he named over 100 new species of bees and wasps, one of which - the andrenid bee Andrena lauracea, described in 1897 - is known only from two female specimens, both collected on spicebush in Carlinville. Amazingly, the two specimens were collected some 90 years apart, the second being collected in 1985, long after the species was presumed to be extinct.
 Also among the cadre of notable Carlinvillians, are several artists, academics, and numerous decorated military veterans. Historic U.S. Route 66 runs through the Carlinville, now known as Illinois Route 4.