El Paso is a city in Woodford and McLean counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 2,756 at the 2020 census. The Woodford County portion of El Paso is part of the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area. El Paso is a small community in central Illinois that took on more characteristics of a highway community after the construction of Interstate 39, which supplanted the older alignment of U.S. Highway 51.