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The Chicago metropolitan area, sometimes informally called Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwest. Encompassing , the metropolitan area contains the Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs, satellite cities, and hinterland, spanning 13 counties across northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. The MSA had a 2020 census population of 9,618,502, and the combined statistical area, which spans 19 counties and extends into southeast Wisconsin, had a population of nearly 10 million. The Chicago area is the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the fourth-largest in North America (after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles), and the largest in the Great Lakes megalopolis. Its urban area is the 50th-largest in the world.
According to the 2020 census, Chicagoland's population is approaching 10 million. The metropolitan area has seen a substantial increase of Latinos residents on top of its already large Latino population, and the Asian American population also increased. The metro area has a large number of White, African American, Latino, Asian American, and Arab American residents, and also has Native American residents. The Chicago metropolitan area has about 3 percent of the U.S. population.
Chicagoland has one of the world's largest and most diversified economies. With more than six million full and part-time employees, the Chicago metropolitan area is a key factor of the Illinois economy. The state has an annual GDP of over $1 trillion, and the Chicago metropolitan area generated an annual gross regional product (GRP) of approximately $700 billion in 2018. The region is home to more than 400 major corporate headquarters, including 31 in the Fortune 500, such as McDonald's, United, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. With many companies having project engagements in Chicago, the area ranked as the nation's top metropolitan area for corporation relocations and expansions for nine consecutive years, the most consecutive years for any region in the country. This metric however only measures project engagements, not real GDP or job growth, areas in which Chicago has substantially underperformed many other major metropolitan areas throughout the country over the past decade. There have been numerous high-profile companies — including several Fortune 500 firms — that have departed the city in recent years, such as Boeing, Caterpillar, TTX Company, Citadel Securities and Tyson Foods, primarily due to unfavorable tax and regulatory conditions, as well as concerns related to crime and overall quality of life. According to McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski these factors have significantly hindered the company's ability to recruit talent for corporate roles at its Chicago headquarters.
The Chicago area is home to a number of the nation's leading research universities, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University, and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The University of Chicago and Northwestern University are consistently ranked as two of the world's best universities.
There are many transportation options around the region. Chicagoland has three separate rail networks: the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and the South Shore Line. The CTA operates elevated and subway lines that run primarily in the city, Downtown Chicago, and some suburbs. The CTA operates some of its rail lines 24 hours a day, every day of the year, nonstop, making Chicago one of only three cities in the world (alongside New York City and Copenhagen) to offer 24-hour nonstop rail service everyday throughout their city limits. The Metra commuter rail network runs numerous lines between Downtown Chicago and suburban/satellite cities, with one line stretching to Kenosha, Wisconsin. The interurban South Shore Line runs between Downtown Chicago and the northwest Indiana portion of the metropolitan area. In addition, Amtrak's Union Station in Downtown Chicago is one of its largest hubs, with numerous lines radiating to and from it.
CTA bus routes serve the city proper, with some service into the suburbs. Pace bus routes serve the suburbs, with some service into the city. In addition, numerous CTA bus routes operate 24 hours a day, nonstop.
]] The Chicago metropolitan statistical area (MSA) was originally designated by the United States Census Bureau in 1950. It comprised the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will, along with Lake County in Indiana. As surrounding counties saw an increase in their population densities and the number of their residents employed within Cook County, they met Census criteria to be added to the MSA. The Chicago MSA, now defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the third-largest MSA by population in the United States. The 2022 census estimate for the population of the MSA was 9,441,957.
The Chicago MSA is further subdivided into four metropolitan divisions. A breakdown of the county constituents and 2021 estimated populations of the four metropolitan divisions of the MSA are as follows:
Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area (9,509,934)
Colonel Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, usually gets credit for placing the term in common use. McCormick's conception of Chicagoland stretched all the way to nearby parts of four states (Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa). The first usage was in the Tribune's July 27, 1926, front page headline, "Chicagoland's Shrines: A Tour of Discoveries", for an article by reporter James O'Donnell Bennett. He stated that Chicagoland comprised everything in a radius in every direction and reported on many different places in the area. The Tribune was the dominant newspaper in a vast area stretching to the west of the city, and that hinterland was closely tied to the metropolis by rail lines and commercial links.Cronon (1992); Keating (2005); Keating (2004)
Today, the Chicago Tribune's usage includes the city of Chicago, the rest of Cook County, eight nearby Illinois counties (Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Will, and Kankakee), and the two Indiana counties of Lake and Porter. Illinois Department of Tourism literature uses Chicagoland for suburbs in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, and Will counties,[1] treating the city separately. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce defines it as all of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties.
In addition, company marketing programs such as Construction Data Company's "Chicago and Vicinity" region and the Chicago Automobile Trade Association's "Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana" advertising campaign are directed at the MSA itself, as well as LaSalle, Winnebago (Rockford), Boone, and Ogle counties in Illinois, in addition to Jasper, Newton, and La Porte counties in Indiana and Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties in Wisconsin, and even as far northeast as Berrien County, Michigan. The region is part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis, containing an estimated 55 million people.
Along the southern shore of the Chicago Plain, sand dunes run alongside the lake. The tallest dunes reach up to near and are found in Indiana Dunes National Park. Surrounding the low plain are bands of in the south and west suburbs. These areas are higher and hillier than the Chicago Plain. A Chicago Portage, separating the Mississippi River watershed from that of the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, runs through the Chicago area.
A 2012 survey of the urban trees and forests in the seven county Illinois section of the Chicago area found that 21% of the land is covered by the tree and shrub canopy, made up of about 157,142,000 trees. The five most common tree species are buckthorn, green ash, boxelder, black cherry, and American elm. These resources perform important functions in carbon storage, water recycling, and energy saving.
| Mexican | — | 1,702,582 | 18.4% |
| Black or African American (Including Afro-Caribbean & Sub-Saharan African) | 1,454,774 | 1,640,932 | 17.7% |
| German Americans | 258,719 | 1,171,467 | 12.6% |
| Irish Americans | 228,668 | 920,413 | 9.9% |
| Polish | 308,727 | 721,538 | 7.8% |
| Italian | 171,860 | 573,170 | 6.2% |
| English | 111,705 | 448,481 | 4.8% |
| Indian | 233,793 | 248,606 | 2.7% |
| American (Mostly old-stock white Americans of British descent) | 160,656 | 224,204 | 2.4% |
| Puerto Rican | — | 206,682 | 2.2% |
| Filipino | 121,749 | 157,730 | 1.7% |
| Swedish | 26,644 | 143,476 | 1.5% |
| Chinese | 113,354 | 137,286 | 1.5% |
| French Americans | 10,665 | 106,879 | 1.2% |
| Dutch Americans | 28,209 | 96,060 | 1.0% |
| Arab Americans | 66,215 | 94,913 | 1.0% |
| Scottish | 16,268 | 89,240 | 1.0% |
| Greek Americans | 37,976 | 85,501 | 0.9% |
| Norwegian | 21,289 | 85,404 | 0.9% |
| Russian | 28,348 | 78,252 | 0.8% |
| Czech Americans | 19,212 | 72,058 | 0.8% |
| Ukrainian | 47,806 | 69,266 | 0.7% |
| Indigenous Latin American | 38,200 | 64,863 | 0.7% |
| Korean Americans | 49,779 | 62,325 | 0.7% |
| Lithuanian | 24,763 | 59,359 | 0.6% |
| Pakistani | 41,457 | 47,078 | 0.5% |
| Nigerian | 31,833 | 41,263 | 0.4% |
| Guatemalan | — | 40,847 | 0.4% |
| Ecuadorian | — | 38,590 | 0.4% |
| Hungarian | 10,626 | 37,658 | 0.4% |
| Colombian | — | 37,451 | 0.4% |
| Croatian | 11,316 | 36,601 | 0.4% |
| Scotch-Irish | 8,216 | 32,606 | 0.4% |
| Romanian | 20,218 | 31,904 | 0.3% |
| Japanese | 14,823 | 31,055 | 0.3% |
| Vietnamese | 24,447 | 31,007 | 0.3% |
According to 2022 estimates from the U.S. Census, poverty rates of the largest counties from least poverty to most are as follows: McHenry 4.0%, Dupage 6.7%, Will 6.9%, Kane 7.8%, Lake 8.0%, and Cook 13.6%. However, Cook County, which contains luxury high rises and expensive houses in sections of the city and expensive houses along the waterfront in the North Shore area, would also have the highest percentage of expensive homes in the region.
In an in-depth historical analysis, Keating (2004, 2005) examined the origins of 233 settlements that by 1900 had become suburbs or city neighborhoods of the Chicago metropolitan area. The settlements began as farm centers (41%), industrial towns (30%), residential railroad suburbs (15%), and recreational/institutional centers (13%). Although relations between the different settlement types were at times contentious, there also was cooperation in such undertakings as the construction of high schools.
Counties highlighted in gray were not included in the MSA for that census. The CSA totals in blue are the totals of all the counties listed above, regardless of whether they were included in the Chicago Combined Statistical Area at the time.
[[File:Chicago metro area urban areas 2020.svg|thumb|300px|Urban areas contained within the Chicago combined statistical area as of the 2020 census:
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| Chicago, IL–IN | 8,671,746 | 2,337.89 | 6,055.09 | 3,709.2 | 1,432.1 |
| Round Lake Beach–McHenry–Grayslake, IL–WI | 261,835 | 127.61 | 330.52 | 2,051.8 | 792.2 |
| Kenosha, WI | 125,865 | 56.17 | 145.48 | 2,240.8 | 865.2 |
| Michigan City–La Porte, IN–MI | 71,367 | 49.16 | 127.32 | 1,451.7 | 560.5 |
| Kankakee, IL | 66,530 | 31.66 | 82.00 | 2,101.4 | 811.3 |
| DeKalb, IL | 64,736 | 25.63 | 66.39 | 2,525.6 | 975.1 |
| Valparaiso–Shorewood Forest, IN | 51,867 | 33.64 | 87.12 | 1,542.0 | 595.4 |
| Peru–LaSalle, IL | 29,763 | 21.45 | 55.56 | 1,387.4 | 535.7 |
| Woodstock, IL | 25,298 | 9.31 | 24.10 | 2,718.7 | 1,049.7 |
| Ottawa, IL | 20,122 | 9.99 | 25.87 | 2,014.2 | 777.7 |
| Streator, IL | 16,209 | 8.12 | 21.04 | 1,995.3 | 770.4 |
| Coal City–Braidwood, IL | 15,837 | 10.29 | 26.65 | 1,539.4 | 594.4 |
| Morris, IL | 15,740 | 8.64 | 22.37 | 1,822.2 | 703.5 |
| Lowell, IN | 10,747 | 5.28 | 13.66 | 2,037.2 | 786.6 |
| Manteno, IL | 10,437 | 6.01 | 15.56 | 1,736.8 | 670.6 |
| Harvard, IL | 9,376 | 4.36 | 11.30 | 2,148.7 | 829.6 |
| Princeton, IL | 7,979 | 6.20 | 16.06 | 1,287.1 | 497.0 |
| Marengo, IL | 7,509 | 3.81 | 9.86 | 1,971.5 | 761.2 |
| Lake Holiday, IL | 7,313 | 4.30 | 11.14 | 1,700.5 | 656.6 |
| Mendota, IL | 6,918 | 2.85 | 7.38 | 2,426.2 | 936.8 |
| Wilmington, IL | 6,388 | 3.95 | 10.23 | 1,617.3 | 624.5 |
| McHenry Northwest–Wonder Lake, IL | 5,758 | 2.35 | 6.08 | 2,453.6 | 947.4 |
| Hampshire, IL | 5,699 | 2.72 | 7.06 | 2,091.4 | 807.5 |
| Rensselaer, IN | 5,509 | 3.23 | 8.37 | 1,703.9 | 657.9 |
| Genoa, IL | 5,484 | 2.20 | 5.69 | 2,498.0 | 964.5 |
| Westville, IN | 5,189 | 2.10 | 5.45 | 2,466.0 | 952.1 |
| Marseilles, IL | 4,660 | 2.39 | 6.19 | 1,948.4 | 752.3 |
A key piece of infrastructure for several generations was the Union Stock Yards of Chicago, which from 1865 until 1971 penned and slaughtered millions of cattle and hogs into standardized cuts of beef and pork. This prompted poet Carl Sandburg to describe Chicago as the "Hog Butcher for the World".Carl Sandburg. " Chicago". Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, vol. 3, no. 6 (March 1914):191-192.
The Chicago area, meanwhile, began to produce significant quantities of telecommunications gear, electronics, steel, crude oil derivatives, automobiles, and industrial capital goods.
By the early 2000s, Illinois' economy had moved toward a dependence on high-value-added services, such as financial trading, higher education, logistics, and health care. In some cases, these services clustered around institutions that hearkened back to Illinois's earlier economies. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a trading exchange for global derivatives, had begun its life as an agricultural futures market.
In 2007, the area ranked first among U.S. metro areas in the number of new and expanded corporate facilities. It ranked third in 2008, behind the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown and Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan areas, and ranked second behind the New York metropolitan area in 2009.
The Wall Street Journal summarized the Chicago area's economy in November 2006 with the comment that "Chicago has survived by repeatedly reinventing itself."
McHenry County is the reddest collar county, as it is the only county out of the five collar counties that has continued to routinely elect Republicans statewide, having voted for the Republican candidate for president in the last four out of five United States presidential elections. Dekalb County, which is the westernmost county in the metro, is a Democratic leaning county, especially because of the demographically diverse city of Dekalb being home to NIU. Kankakee County and Grundy County, which are located to the south and southwest of Will County respectively, are the most Republican counties included in metro, particularly due to being more exurban and rural.
Major league professional teams:
Other professional teams:
The Chicagoland Speedway oval track has hosted NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar Series races. The Chicago Marathon is one of the World Marathon Majors. The Western Open and BMW Championship are PGA Tour tournaments that have been held primarily at golf courses near Chicago.
NCAA Division I College Sports Teams:
Historically, the Chicago metropolitan area has been at the center of a number of national educational movements, from the free-flowing Winnetka Plan to the regimented Taylorism of the Gary Plan. In higher education, University of Chicago founder William Rainey Harper was a leading early advocate of the junior college movement; Joliet Junior College is the nation's oldest continuously operating junior college today. Later U of C president Robert Maynard Hutchins was central to the Great Books movement, and programs of dialogic education arising from that legacy can be found today at the U of C, at Shimer College, and in the City Colleges of Chicago and Oakton College in the Northwest suburbs.
It became common to call suburbanites "708'ers", in reference to their area code.
The 708 area code was partitioned in 1996 into three area codes, serving different portions of the metro area: 630, 708, and 847.
At the same time that the 708 area code was running out of phone numbers, the 312 area code in Chicago was also exhausting its supply of available numbers. As a result, the city of Chicago was divided into two area codes, 312 and 773. Rather than divide the city by a north–south area code, the central business district retained the 312 area code, while the remainder of the city took the new 773 code.
In 2002, the 847 area code was supplemented with the overlay area code 224. In February 2007, the 815 area code (serving outlying portions of the metro area) was supplemented with the overlay area code 779. In October 2007, the overlay area code 331 was implemented to supplement the 630 area with additional numbers.
Plans are in place for overlay codes in the 708, 773, and 312 regions as those area codes become exhausted in the future.
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