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Wikipedia

Illinois

January 12, 2023

This article is about the U.S. state. For the river, see Illinois River. For other uses, see Illinois (disambiguation).

Illinois (/ˌɪləˈnɔɪ/ (listen) IL-ə-NOY) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other metropolitan areas include Peoria and Rockford, as well as Springfield, its capital. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-largest land area.

Illinois
State
State of Illinois
Flag
Seal
Nickname(s): 
Land of Lincoln, Prairie State, The Inland Empire State
Motto(s): 
State Sovereignty, National Union
Anthem: "Illinois"
Map of the United States with Illinois highlighted
CountryUnited States
Before statehoodIllinois Territory
Admitted to the UnionDecember 3, 1818 (21st)
CapitalSpringfield
Largest cityChicago
Largest metro and urban areasChicagoland
Government
 • GovernorJ. B. Pritzker (D)
 • Lieutenant GovernorJuliana Stratton (D)
LegislatureGeneral Assembly
 • Upper houseIllinois Senate
 • Lower houseIllinois House of Representatives
JudiciarySupreme Court of Illinois
U.S. senatorsDick Durbin (D)
Tammy Duckworth (D)
U.S. House delegation14 Democrats
3 Republicans (list)
Area
 • Total57,915 sq mi (149,997 km2)
 • Land55,593 sq mi (143,969 km2)
 • Water2,320 sq mi (5,981 km2)  3.99%
 • Rank25th
Dimensions
 • Length390 mi (628 km)
 • Width210 mi (338 km)
Elevation
600 ft (180 m)
Highest elevation
(Charles Mound[1][2][3])
1,235 ft (376.4 m)
Lowest elevation
(Confluence of Mississippi River and Ohio River[2][3])
280 ft (85 m)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total12,812,508[4]
 • Rank6th
 • Density232/sq mi (89.4/km2)
  • Rank12th
 • Median household income
$65,030[5]
 • Income rank
17th
DemonymsIllinoisan
Language
 • Official languageEnglish[6]
 • Spoken languageEnglish (80.8%)
Spanish (14.9%)
Other (5.1%)
Time zoneUTC−06:00 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−05:00 (CDT)
USPS abbreviation
IL
ISO 3166 codeUS-IL
Traditional abbreviationIll.
Latitude36° 58′ N to 42° 30′ N
Longitude87° 30′ W to 91° 31′ W
Websitewww.illinois.gov

Illinois has a highly diverse economy, with the global city of Chicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its central location and favorable geography, the state is a major transportation hub: the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway. Additionally, the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash rivers form parts of the state's boundaries. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been among the world's ten busiest airports for decades. Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture, exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria?.[7]

What is now Illinois was inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous cultures, including the advanced civilization centered in the Cahokia region. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi River in the 17th century, in the region they called Illinois Country, as part of the sprawling colony of New France. Following U.S. independence in 1783, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the Northwest Territory, and in 1818 it achieved statehood. The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world, benefiting from its location as one of the few natural harbors in southwestern Lake Michigan.[8] The invention of the self-scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. In the mid-19th century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation.[9]

By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities, and coal mining in the central and southern areas, attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois became one of America's most industrialized states and remains a major manufacturing center.[10] The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans, particularly in Chicago, who founded the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.[11][12] Chicago became a leading cultural, economic, and population center and is today one of the world's major commercial centers; its metropolitan area, informally referred to as Chicagoland, holds about 65% of the state's 12.8 million residents.

Three U.S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama; additionally, Ronald Reagan was born and raised in the state. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln, which has been displayed on its license plates since 1954.[13][14] The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

Etymology

See also: Illinois Confederation and List of counties in Illinois

"Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois Native Americans, a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records.[15]

American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant 'man' or 'men' in the Miami-Illinois language, with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois.[16][17] This etymology is not supported by the Illinois language,[citation needed] as the word for "man" is ireniwa, and plural of "man" is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also been said to mean 'tribe of superior men',[18] which is a false etymology. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa 'he speaks the regular way'. This was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe· (pluralized as ilinwe·k). The French borrowed these forms, spelling the /we/ ending as -ois, a transliteration of that sound in the French of that time. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the western area. The Illinois's name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms.[19][20]

History

Main article: History of Illinois

Pre-European

 
Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois

American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. Cahokia, the largest regional chiefdom and Urban Center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. They built an urban complex of more than 100 platform and burial mounds, a 50-acre (20 ha) plaza larger than 35 football fields,[21] and a woodhenge of sacred cedar, all in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology. Monks Mound, the center of the site, is the largest Pre-Columbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico. It is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide, and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha).[22] It contains about 814,000 cu yd (622,000 m3) of earth.[23] It was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 ft (32 m) in length and 48 ft (15 m) in width, covered an area 5,000 sq ft (460 m2), and been as much as 50 ft (15 m) high, making its peak 150 ft (46 m) above the level of the plaza. The finely crafted ornaments and tools recovered by archaeologists at Cahokia include elaborate ceramics, finely sculptured stonework, carefully embossed and engraved copper and mica sheets, and one funeral blanket for an important chief fashioned from 20,000 shell beads. These artifacts indicate that Cahokia was truly an urban center, with clustered housing, markets, and specialists in toolmaking, hide dressing, potting, jewelry making, shell engraving, weaving and salt making.[24]

The civilization vanished in the 15th century for unknown reasons, but historians and archeologists have speculated that the people depleted the area of resources. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare. According to Suzanne Austin Alchon, "At one site in the central Illinois River valley, one third of all adults died as a result of violent injuries."[25] The next major power in the region was the Illinois Confederation or Illini, a political alliance.[26] As the Illini declined during the Beaver Wars era, members of the Algonquian-speaking Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, and other tribes including the Fox (Meskwaki), Iowa, Kickapoo, Mascouten, Piankeshaw, Shawnee, Wea, and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) came into the area from the east and north around the Great Lakes.[27][28]

European exploration and settlement prior to 1800

Main articles: New France; Louisiana (New France); Canada (New France); Illinois Country; French and Indian War; Treaty of Paris (1763); Province of Quebec (1763–1791); Indian Reserve (1763); American Revolutionary War; Western theater of the American Revolutionary War; Illinois County, Virginia; Treaty of Paris (1783); Northwest Ordinance; and Northwest Territory
 
Illinois in 1718, approximate modern state area highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle[29]

French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673. Marquette soon after founded a mission at the Grand Village of the Illinois in Illinois Country. In 1680, French explorers under René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti constructed a fort at the site of present-day Peoria, and in 1682, a fort atop Starved Rock in today's Starved Rock State Park. French Empire Canadiens came south to settle particularly along the Mississippi River, and Illinois was part of first New France, and then of La Louisiane until 1763, when it passed to the British with their defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. The small French settlements continued, although many French migrated west to Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, Missouri, to evade British rule.[30]

A few British soldiers were posted in Illinois, but few British or American settlers moved there, as the Crown made it part of the territory reserved for Indians west of the Appalachians, and then part of the British Province of Quebec. In 1778, George Rogers Clark claimed Illinois County for Virginia. In a compromise, Virginia (and other states that made various claims) ceded the area to the new United States in the 1780s and it became part of the Northwest Territory, administered by the federal government and later organized as states.[30]

19th century

Main articles: Indiana Territory, Organic act § List of organic acts, Illinois Territory, Admission to the Union, and List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
See also: History of Chicago and History of Nauvoo, Illinois

Prior to statehood

 
The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741 to the French mission at Kaskaskia. It was later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to celebrate U.S. victory in the Revolution

The Illinois-Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois. The Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809, with its capital at Kaskaskia, an early French settlement.

During the discussions leading up to Illinois's admission to the Union, the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice.[31] The original provisions of the Northwest Ordinance had specified a boundary that would have been tangent to the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Such a boundary would have left Illinois with no shoreline on Lake Michigan at all. However, as Indiana had successfully been granted a 10 mi (16 km) northern extension of its boundary to provide it with a usable lakefront, the original bill for Illinois statehood, submitted to Congress on January 23, 1818, stipulated a northern border at the same latitude as Indiana's, which is defined as 10 miles north of the southernmost extremity of Lake Michigan. However, the Illinois delegate, Nathaniel Pope, wanted more, and lobbied to have the boundary moved further north. The final bill passed by Congress included an amendment to shift the border to 42° 30' north, which is approximately 51 mi (82 km) north of the Indiana northern border. This shift added 8,500 sq mi (22,000 km2) to the state, including the lead mining region near Galena. More importantly, it added nearly 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the Chicago River. Pope and others envisioned a canal that would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers and thus connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.

The State of Illinois prior to the Civil War

 
In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The southern portion of Illinois Territory was admitted as the state of Illinois, and the rest was joined to Michigan Territory.
 
Old State Capitol: Abraham Lincoln and other area legislators were instrumental in moving the state capitol to centrally located Springfield in 1839.

In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The capital remained at Kaskaskia, headquartered in a small building rented by the state. In 1819, Vandalia became the capital, and over the next 18 years, three separate buildings were built to serve successively as the capitol building. In 1837, the state legislators representing Sangamon County, under the leadership of state representative Abraham Lincoln, succeeded in having the capital moved to Springfield,[32] where a fifth capitol building was constructed. A sixth capitol building was erected in 1867, which continues to serve as the Illinois capitol today.

Though it was ostensibly a "free state", there was nonetheless slavery in Illinois. The ethnic French had owned black slaves since the 1720s, and American settlers had already brought slaves into the area from Kentucky. Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordinance, but that was not enforced for those already holding slaves. When Illinois became a state in 1818, the Ordinance no longer applied, and about 900 slaves were held in the state. As the southern part of the state, later known as "Egypt" or "Little Egypt",[33][34] was largely settled by migrants from the South, the section was hostile to free blacks. Settlers were allowed to bring slaves with them for labor, but, in 1822, state residents voted against making slavery legal. Still, most residents opposed allowing free blacks as permanent residents. Some settlers brought in slaves seasonally or as house servants.[35] The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed. In 1853, John A. Logan helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state.[36]

The winter of 1830–1831 is called the "Winter of the Deep Snow";[37] a sudden, deep snowfall blanketed the state, making travel impossible for the rest of the winter, and many travelers perished. Several severe winters followed, including the "Winter of the Sudden Freeze". On December 20, 1836, a fast-moving cold front passed through, freezing puddles in minutes and killing many travelers who could not reach shelter. The adverse weather resulted in crop failures in the northern part of the state. The southern part of the state shipped food north, and this may have contributed to its name, "Little Egypt", after the Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt supplying grain to his brothers.[38]

In 1832, the Black Hawk War was fought in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin between the United States and the Sauk, Fox (Meskwaki), and Kickapoo Indian tribes. It represents the end of Indian resistance to white settlement in the Chicago region.[39] The Indians had been forced to leave their homes and move to Iowa in 1831; when they attempted to return, they were attacked and eventually defeated by U.S. militia. The survivors were forced back to Iowa.[40]

By 1839, the Latter Day Saints had founded a utopian city called Nauvoo, formerly called Commerce. Located in Hancock County along the Mississippi River, Nauvoo flourished and, by 1844, briefly surpassed Chicago for the position of the state's largest city.[41][42] But in that same year, the Latter Day Saint movement founder, Joseph Smith, was killed in the Carthage Jail, about 30 miles away from Nauvoo. Following a succession crisis, Brigham Young led most Latter Day Saints out of Illinois in a mass exodus to present-day Utah; after close to six years of rapid development, Nauvoo quickly declined afterward.

After it was established in 1833, Chicago gained prominence as a Great Lakes port, and then as an Illinois and Michigan Canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was Illinois's largest city.[30] With the tremendous growth of mines and factories in the state in the 19th century, Illinois was the ground for the formation of labor unions in the United States.

In 1847, after lobbying by Dorothea L. Dix, Illinois became one of the first states to establish a system of state-supported treatment of mental illness and disabilities, replacing local almshouses. Dix came into this effort after having met J. O. King, a Jacksonville, Illinois businessman, who invited her to Illinois, where he had been working to build an asylum for the insane. With the lobbying expertise of Dix, plans for the Jacksonville State Hospital (now known as the Jacksonville Developmental Center) were signed into law on March 1, 1847.[43]

Civil War and after

Main article: Illinois in the American Civil War
 
Union troops embarking at Cairo on January 10, 1862

During the American Civil War, Illinois ranked fourth in soldiers who served (more than 250,000) in the Union Army, a figure surpassed by only New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Beginning with President Abraham Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments, which were numbered from the 7th to the 156th regiments. Seventeen cavalry regiments were also gathered, as well as two light artillery regiments.[44] The town of Cairo, at the southern tip of the state at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, served as a strategically important supply base and training center for the Union army. For several months, both General Grant and Admiral Foote had headquarters in Cairo.

During the Civil War, and more so afterwards, Chicago's population skyrocketed, which increased its prominence. The Pullman Strike and Haymarket Riot, in particular, greatly influenced the development of the American labor movement. From Sunday, October 8, 1871, until Tuesday, October 10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire burned in downtown Chicago, destroying four sq mi (10 km2).[45]

20th century

At the turn of the 20th century, Illinois had a population of nearly 5 million. Many people from other parts of the country were attracted to the state by employment caused by the expanding industrial base. Whites were 98% of the state's population.[46] Bolstered by continued immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and by the African-American Great Migration from the South, Illinois grew and emerged as one of the most important states in the union. By the end of the century, the population had reached 12.4 million.

The Century of Progress World's fair was held at Chicago in 1933. Oil strikes in Marion County and Crawford County led to a boom in 1937, and by 1939, Illinois ranked fourth in U.S. oil production. Illinois manufactured 6.1 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking seventh among the 48 states.[47] Chicago became an ocean port with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959. The seaway and the Illinois Waterway connected Chicago to both the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1960, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines (which still exists as a museum, with a working McDonald's across the street).

Illinois had a prominent role in the emergence of the nuclear age. In 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, the University of Chicago conducted the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. In 1957, Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, activated the first experimental nuclear power generating system in the United States. By 1960, the first privately financed nuclear plant in the United States, Dresden 1, was dedicated near Morris. In 1967, Fermilab, a national nuclear research facility near Batavia, opened a particle accelerator, which was the world's largest for over 40 years. With eleven plants currently operating, Illinois leads all states in the amount of electricity generated from nuclear power.[48][49]

In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the nation to adopt the recommendation of the American Law Institute and pass a comprehensive criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy. The code also abrogated common law crimes and established an age of consent of 18.[50] The state's fourth constitution was adopted in 1970, replacing the 1870 document.[51]

The first Farm Aid concert was held in Champaign to benefit American farmers, in 1985. The worst upper Mississippi River flood of the century, the Great Flood of 1993, inundated many towns and thousands of acres of farmland.[30]

21st century

On August 28, 2017, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that prohibited state and local police from arresting anyone solely due to their immigration status or due to federal detainers.[52][53] Some fellow Republicans criticized Rauner for his action, claiming the bill made Illinois a sanctuary state.[54]

Geology

Main article: Geology of Illinois

During the early part of the Paleozoic Era, the area that would one day become Illinois was submerged beneath a shallow sea and located near the Equator. Diverse marine life lived at this time, including trilobites, brachiopods, and crinoids. Changing environmental conditions led to the formation of large coal swamps in the Carboniferous.

Illinois was above sea level for at least part of the Mesozoic, but by its end was again submerged by the Western Interior Seaway. This receded by the Eocene Epoch.

During the Pleistocene Epoch, vast ice sheets covered much of Illinois, with only the Driftless Area remaining exposed. These glaciers carved the basin of Lake Michigan and left behind traces of ancient glacial lakes and moraines.[55]

Geography

Main article: Geography of Illinois
Further information: List of ecoregions in Illinois

Illinois is located in the Midwest region of the United States and is one of the eight states in the Great Lakes region of North America (which also includes Ontario, Canada).

Boundaries

Illinois's eastern border with Indiana consists of a north–south line at 87° 31′ 30″ west longitude in Lake Michigan at the north, to the Wabash River in the south above Post Vincennes. The Wabash River continues as the eastern/southeastern border with Indiana until the Wabash enters the Ohio River. This marks the beginning of Illinois's southern border with Kentucky, which runs along the northern shoreline of the Ohio River.[56] Most of the western border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River; Kaskaskia is an exclave of Illinois, lying west of the Mississippi and reachable only from Missouri. The state's northern border with Wisconsin is fixed at 42° 30′ north latitude. The northeastern border of Illinois lies in Lake Michigan, within which Illinois shares a water boundary with the state of Michigan, as well as Wisconsin and Indiana.[27]

Topography

 
Charles Mound, the highest natural point in Illinois at 1,235 feet (376 m) above sea level, is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state.

Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it does have some minor variation in its elevation. In extreme northwestern Illinois, the Driftless Area, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Southern Illinois includes the hilly areas around the Shawnee National Forest.

Charles Mound, located in the Driftless region, has the state's highest natural elevation above sea level at 1,235 ft (376 m). Other highlands include the Shawnee Hills in the south, and there is varying topography along its rivers; the Illinois River bisects the state northeast to southwest. The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is known as the American Bottom.

Divisions

 
At 279 feet (85 m) above sea level,[57] the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Illinois has three major geographical divisions. Northern Illinois is dominated by Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland, which is the city of Chicago and its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding. As defined by the federal government, the Chicago metro area includes several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and has a population of over 9.8 million. Chicago itself is a cosmopolitan city, densely populated, industrialized, the transportation hub of the nation, and settled by a wide variety of ethnic groups. The city of Rockford, Illinois's third-largest city and center of the state's fourth largest metropolitan area, sits along Interstates 39 and 90 some 75 mi (121 km) northwest of Chicago. The Quad Cities region, located along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois, had a population of 381,342 in 2011.

The midsection of Illinois is the second major division, called Central Illinois. Historically prairie, it is now mainly agricultural and known as the Heart of Illinois. It is characterized by small towns and medium–small cities. The western section (west of the Illinois River) was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the conspicuous western bulge of the state. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figure prominently in Central Illinois. Cities include Peoria; Springfield, the state capital; Quincy; Decatur; Bloomington-Normal; and Champaign-Urbana.[27]

The third division is Southern Illinois, comprising the area south of U.S. Route 50, including Little Egypt, near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River. Southern Illinois is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia, as well as the site of the first state capital at Kaskaskia, which today is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River.[27][58] This region has a somewhat warmer winter climate, different variety of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (due to the area remaining unglaciated during the Illinoian Stage, unlike most of the rest of the state), as well as small-scale oil deposits and coal mining. The Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, such as East St. Louis, are located in this region, and collectively, they are known as the Metro-East. The other somewhat significant concentration of population in Southern Illinois is the Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, Illinois Combined Statistical Area centered on Carbondale and Marion, a two-county area that is home to 123,272 residents.[27] A portion of southeastern Illinois is part of the extended Evansville, Indiana, Metro Area, locally referred to as the Tri-State with Indiana and Kentucky. Seven Illinois counties are in the area.

In addition to these three, largely latitudinally defined divisions, all of the region outside the Chicago metropolitan area is often called "downstate" Illinois. This term is flexible, but is generally meant to mean everything outside the influence of the Chicago area. Thus, some cities in Northern Illinois, such as DeKalb, which is west of Chicago, and Rockford—which is actually north of Chicago—are sometimes incorrectly considered to be 'downstate'.

Climate

Main article: Climate of Illinois
See also: St. Louis tornado history
 
Köppen climate types of Illinois

Illinois has a climate that varies widely throughout the year. Because of its nearly 400-mile distance between its northernmost and southernmost extremes, as well as its mid-continental situation, most of Illinois has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cold winters. The southern part of the state, from about Carbondale southward, has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), with more moderate winters. Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 in (1,219 mm) at the southern tip to around 35 in (889 mm) in the northern portion of the state. Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 in (965 mm) in the Chicago area, while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 in (356 mm).[59] The all-time high temperature was 117 °F (47 °C), recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St. Louis, and the all-time low temperature was −38 °F (−39 °C), recorded on January 31, 2019, during the January 2019 North American cold wave at a weather station near Mount Carroll,[60][61] and confirmed on March 5, 2019.[62] This followed the previous record of −36 °F (−38 °C) recorded on January 5, 1999, near Congerville.[62] Prior to the Mount Carroll record, a temperature of −37 °F (−38 °C) was recorded on January 15, 2009, at Rochelle, but at a weather station not subjected to the same quality control as official records.[63][64]

Illinois averages approximately 51 days of thunderstorm activity a year, which ranks somewhat above average in the number of thunderstorm days for the United States. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes, with an average of 35 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10,000 sq mi (30,000 km2) annually.[65] While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states, some of Tornado Alley's deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred in the state. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people in three states; 613 of the victims died in Illinois.[66]

Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Illinois Cities (°F)
City January February March April May June July August September October November December
Cairo[67] 43/25 48/29 59/37 70/46 78/57 86/67 90/71 88/69 81/61 71/49 57/39 46/30
Chicago[68] 31/16 36/21 47/31 59/42 70/52 81/61 85/65 83/65 75/57 64/45 48/34 36/22
Edwardsville[69] 36/19 42/24 52/34 64/45 75/55 84/64 89/69 86/66 79/58 68/46 53/35 41/25
Moline[70] 30/12 36/18 48/29 62/39 73/50 83/60 86/64 84/62 76/53 64/42 48/30 34/18
Peoria[71] 31/14 37/20 49/30 62/40 73/51 82/60 86/65 84/63 77/54 64/42 49/31 36/20
Rockford[72] 27/11 33/16 46/27 59/37 71/48 80/58 83/63 81/61 74/52 62/40 46/29 32/17
Springfield[73] 33/17 39/22 51/32 63/42 74/53 83/62 86/66 84/64 78/55 67/44 51/34 38/23

Demographics

 
Illinois 2020 Population Density Map
Historical population
Census Pop. %±
18002,458—
181012,282399.7%
182055,211349.5%
1830157,445185.2%
1840476,183202.4%
1850851,47078.8%
18601,711,951101.1%
18702,539,89148.4%
18803,077,87121.2%
18903,826,35224.3%
19004,821,55026.0%
19105,638,59116.9%
19206,485,28015.0%
19307,630,65417.7%
19407,897,2413.5%
19508,712,17610.3%
196010,081,15815.7%
197011,113,97610.2%
198011,426,5182.8%
199011,430,6020.0%
200012,419,2938.6%
201012,830,6323.3%
202012,812,508−0.1%
Source:
1910–2020)
 
Map of counties in Illinois by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
Non-Hispanic White

The United States Census Bureau found that the population of Illinois was 12,812,508 in the 2020 United States census, moving from the fifth-largest state to the sixth-largest state (losing out to Pennsylvania). Illinois' population slightly declined in 2020 from the 2010 United States census by just over 18,000 residents and the overall population was quite higher than recent census estimates.[74]

Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest region. Chicago, the third-most populous city in the United States, is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area or Chicagoland, as this area is nicknamed. Although the Chicago metropolitan area comprises only 9% of the land area of the state, it contains 65% of the state's residents. The losses of population anticipated from the 2020 census results do not arise from the Chicago metro area; rather the declines are from the Downstate counties.[75]

Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census
Race and ethnicity[76] Alone Total
White (non-Hispanic) 58.3% 58.3
 
 61.3% 61.3
 
Hispanic or Latino[a] — 18.2% 18.2
 
African American (non-Hispanic) 13.9% 13.9
 
 15.0% 15
 
Asian 5.8% 5.8
 
 6.7% 6.7
 
Native American 0.1% 0.1
 
 1.1% 1.1
 
Pacific Islander 0.02% 0.02
 
 0.1% 0.1
 
Other 0.4% 0.4
 
 1.1% 1.1
 
Illinois Racial Breakdown of Population
Racial composition 1990[77] 2000[78] 2010[79]
White 78.3% 73.5% 71.5%
Black 14.8% 15.1% 14.5%
Asian 2.5% 3.4% 4.6%
Native 0.2% 0.2% 0.3%
Native Hawaiian and
other Pacific Islander		 — — —
Other race 4.2% 5.8% 6.7%
Two or more races — 1.9% 2.3%

2019 American Community Survey

Racial Makeup of Illinois (2019)[80]

  White alone (71.37%)
  Black alone (14.13%)
  Native American alone (0.26%)
  Asian Alone (5.67%)
  Pacific Islander Alone (0.04%)
  Some other race alone (5.76%)
  Two or more races (2.78%)

Racial/Ethnic Makeup of Illinois excluding Hispanics from racial categories (2019)[80]
NH=Non-Hispanic

  White NH (60.69%)
  Black NH (13.88%)
  Native American NH (0.10%)
  Asian NH (5.60%)
  Pacific Islander NH (0.02%)
  Other NH (0.17%)
  Two or more races NH (2.03%)
  Hispanic Any Race (17.49%)

Racial Makeup of Hispanics in Illinois (2019)[80]

  White alone (61.05%)
  Black alone (1.40%)
  Native American alone (0.89%)
  Asian Alone (0.36%)
  Pacific Islander Alone (0.07%)
  Other race alone (31.96%)
  Two or more races (4.28%)

According to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Illinois's population was 71.4% White (60.7% Non-Hispanic White), 5.6% Asian, 0.2% Some Other Race, 13.9% Black or African American, 0.1% Native Americans and Alaskan Native, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 2.0% from two or more races.[80] The White population continues to remain the largest racial category in Illinois as Hispanics primarily identify as White (61.1%) with others identifying as Some Other Race (32.0%), Multiracial (4.3%), Black (1.4%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (0.2%), Asian (0.1%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%).[80] By ethnicity, 17.5% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race) and 82.5% is Non-Hispanic (of any race). If treated as a separate category, Hispanics are the largest minority group in Illinois.[80]

The state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 83.5% in 1970[81] to 60.90% in 2018.[82] As of 2011, 49.4% of Illinois's population younger than age 1 were minorities (Note: Children born to white Hispanics or to a sole full or partial minority parent are counted as minorities).[83]

At the 2007 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1,768,518 foreign-born inhabitants of the state or 13.8% of the population, with 48.4% from Latin America, 24.6% from Asia, 22.8% from Europe, 2.9% from Africa, 1.2% from Canada, and 0.2% from Oceania. Of the foreign-born population, 43.7% were naturalized U.S. citizens, and 56.3% were not U.S. citizens.[84] In 2007, 6.9% of Illinois's population was reported as being under age 5, 24.9% under age 18 and 12.1% were age 65 and over. Females made up approximately 50.7% of the population.[85]

According to the 2007 estimates, 21.1% of the population had German ancestry, 13.3% had Irish ancestry, 8% had British ancestry, 7.9% had Polish ancestry, 6.4% had Italian ancestry, 4.6% listed themselves as American, 2.4% had Swedish ancestry, 2.2% had French ancestry, other than Basque, 1.6% had Dutch ancestry, and 1.4% had Norwegian ancestry.[84] Illinois also has large numbers of African Americans and Latinos (mostly Mexicans and Puerto Ricans).

Chicago, along the shores of Lake Michigan, is the nation's third largest city. In 2000, 23.3% of Illinois's population lived in the city of Chicago, 43.3% in Cook County, and 65.6% in the counties of the Chicago metropolitan area: Will, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties, as well as Cook County. The remaining population lives in the smaller cities and rural areas that dot the state's plains. As of 2000, the state's center of population was at 41°16′42″N 88°22′49″W / 41.278216°N 88.380238°W / 41.278216; -88.380238, located in Grundy County, northeast of the village of Mazon.[27][30][58][86]

Birth data

Births do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by ethnicity and by race.

Live Births by Single Race/Ethnicity of Mother
Race 2013[87] 2014[88] 2015[89] 2016[90] 2017[91] 2018[92] 2019[93] 2020[94]
White: 119,157 (75.9%) 119,995 (75.7%) 119,630 (75.6%) ... ... ... ... ...
Non-Hispanic White 85,866 (54.7%) 86,227 (54.4%) 85,424 (54.0%) 82,318 (53.3%) 78,925 (52.8%) 77,244 (53.3%) 74,434 (53.1%) 70,550 (52.9%)
Black 27,692 (17.6%) 28,160 (17.8%) 28,059 (17.7%) 25,619 (16.6%) 25,685 (17.2%) 24,482 (16.9%) 23,258 (16.6%) 22,293 (16.7%)
Asian 9,848 (6.3%) 10,174 (6.4%) 10,222 (6.5%) 10,015 (6.5%) 9,650 (6.5%) 9,452 (6.5%) 9,169 (6.5%) 8,505 (6.4%)
American Indian 234 (0.1%) 227 (0.1%) 205 (0.1%) 110 (0.0%) 133 (0.1%) 129 (0.1%) 119 (0.1%) 79 (>0.1%)
Hispanic (of any race) 33,454 (21.3%) 33,803 (21.3%) 33,902 (21.4%) 32,635 (21.1%) 31,428 (21.0%) 30,362 (21.0%) 30,097 (21.5%) 28,808 (21.6%)
Total Illinois 156,931 (100%) 158,556 (100%) 158,116 (100%) 154,445 (100%) 149,390 (100%) 144,815 (100%) 140,128 (100%) 133,298 (100%)
  • Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Urban areas

See also: Illinois statistical areas and List of municipalities in Illinois

Chicago is the largest city in the state and the third-most populous city in the United States, with its 2020 population of 2,746,388. The U.S. Census Bureau currently lists seven other cities with populations of over 100,000 within Illinois. Based upon the U.S. Census Bureau's official 2010 population:[95] Aurora, a Chicago satellite town that eclipsed Rockford for the title of second-most populous city in Illinois; its 2010 population was 197,899. Rockford, at 152,871, is the third-largest city in the state, and is the largest city in the state not located within the Chicago suburbs. Joliet, located in metropolitan Chicago, is the fourth-largest city in the state, with a population of 147,433. Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, is fifth with 141,853. Naperville and Aurora share a boundary along Illinois Route 59. Springfield, the state's capital, comes in as sixth-most populous with 117,352 residents. Peoria, which decades ago was the second-most populous city in the state, is seventh with 115,007. The eighth-largest and final city in the 100,000 club is Elgin, a northwest suburb of Chicago, with a 2010 population of 108,188.

The most populated city in the state south of Springfield is Belleville, with 44,478 people at the 2010 census. It is located in the Illinois portion of Greater St. Louis (often called the Metro-East area), which has a rapidly growing population of over 700,000.

Other major urban areas include the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area, which has a combined population of almost 230,000 people, the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities area with about 215,000 people, and the Bloomington-Normal area with a combined population of over 165,000.

 
 
Largest cities or towns in Illinois
2019 U.S. Census Bureau Estimate[96]
Rank Name County Pop.
 
Chicago
 
Aurora 		1 Chicago Cook 2,693,976  
Naperville
 
Joliet
2 Aurora Kane 197,757
3 Naperville DuPage 148,449
4 Joliet Will 147,344
5 Rockford Winnebago 145,609
6 Springfield Sangamon 114,230
7 Elgin Kane / Cook 110,849
8 Peoria Peoria 110,417
9 Champaign Champaign 88,909
10 Waukegan Lake 86,075

Languages

Main article: Languages of Illinois

The official language of Illinois is English,[97] although between 1923 and 1969, state law gave official status to "the American language". Nearly 80% of people in Illinois speak English natively, and most of the rest speak it fluently as a second language.[98] A number of dialects of American English are spoken, ranging from Inland Northern American English and African-American English around Chicago, to Midland American English in Central Illinois, to Southern American English in the far south.

Over 20% of Illinoians speak a language other than English at home, of which Spanish is by far the most widespread, at more than 12% of the total population.[99] A sizeable number of Polish speakers is present in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Illinois Country French has mostly gone extinct in Illinois, although it is still celebrated in the French Colonial Historic District.

Religion

Religion in Illinois (2014)[100][101]

  Protestantism (43%)
  Roman Catholicism (28%)
  No religion (22%)
  Judaism (2%)
  Islam (1%)
  Buddhism (1%)
  Hinduism (1%)
  Other religion (1%)
  No response given/Unknown (1%)

Christianity

Roman Catholics constitute the single largest religious denomination in Illinois; they are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago and account for nearly 30% of the state's population.[102] However, taken together as a group, the various Protestant denominations comprise a greater percentage of the state's population than do Catholics. In 2010, Catholics in Illinois numbered 3,648,907. The largest Protestant denominations were the United Methodist Church with 314,461 members and the Southern Baptist Convention with 283,519. Illinois has one of the largest concentrations of Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States.

Illinois played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement, with Nauvoo becoming a gathering place for Mormons in the early 1840s. Nauvoo was the location of the succession crisis, which led to the separation of the Mormon movement into several Latter Day Saint sects. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest of the sects to emerge from the Mormon schism, has more than 55,000 adherents in Illinois today.[103]

Other Abrahamic religious communities

A significant number of adherents of other Abrahamic faiths can be found in Illinois. Largely concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area, followers of the Muslim, Baháʼí, and Jewish religions all call the state home.[104] Muslims constituted the largest non-Christian group, with 359,264 adherents.[105] Illinois has the largest concentration of Muslims by state in the country, with 2,800 Muslims per 100,000 citizens.[106]

The largest and oldest surviving Baháʼí House of Worship in the world is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, Illinois, one of eight continental Baháʼí House of Worship.[107] It serves as a space for people of all backgrounds and religions to gather, meditate, reflect, and pray, expressing the Baháʼí principle of the oneness of religions.[108] The Chicago area has a very large Jewish community, particularly in the suburbs of Skokie, Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, and surrounding suburbs. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was the Windy City's first Jewish mayor.

Other religions

Chicago is also home to a very large population of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists.[104]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Illinois
See also: List of Illinois locations by per capita income
 
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at the heart of Chicago's financial center

The dollar gross state product for Illinois was estimated to be US$909 billion in 2019.[109] The state's 2019 per capita gross state product was estimated to be around $72,000.[110]

As of February 2019, the unemployment rate in Illinois reached 4.2%.[111]

Illinois's minimum wage will rise to $15 per hour by 2025, making it one of the highest in the nation.[112]

Agriculture

Main article: Agriculture in Illinois

Illinois's major agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products, and wheat. In most years, Illinois is either the first or second state for the highest production of soybeans, with a harvest of 427.7 million bushels (11.64 million metric tons) in 2008, after Iowa's production of 444.82 million bushels (12.11 million metric tons).[113] Illinois ranks second in U.S. corn production with more than 1.5 billion bushels produced annually.[114] With a production capacity of 1.5 billion gallons per year, Illinois is a top producer of ethanol, ranking third in the United States in 2011.[115] Illinois is a leader in food manufacturing and meat processing.[116] Although Chicago may no longer be "Hog Butcher for the World", the Chicago area remains a global center for food manufacture and meat processing,[116] with many plants, processing houses, and distribution facilities concentrated in the area of the former Union Stock Yards.[117] Illinois also produces wine, and the state is home to two American viticultural areas. In the area of The Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway, peaches and apples are grown. The German immigrants from agricultural backgrounds who settled in Illinois in the mid- to late 19th century are in part responsible for the profusion of fruit orchards in that area of Illinois.[118] Illinois's universities are actively researching alternative agricultural products as alternative crops.

Manufacturing

Illinois is one of the nation's manufacturing leaders, boasting annual value added productivity by manufacturing of over $107 billion in 2006. As of 2011, Illinois is ranked as the 4th-most productive manufacturing state in the country, behind California, Texas, and Ohio.[119] About three-quarters of the state's manufacturers are located in the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region, with 38 percent of Illinois's approximately 18,900 manufacturing plants located in Cook County. As of 2006, the leading manufacturing industries in Illinois, based upon value-added, were chemical manufacturing ($18.3 billion), machinery manufacturing ($13.4 billion), food manufacturing ($12.9 billion), fabricated metal products ($11.5 billion), transportation equipment ($7.4 billion), plastics and rubber products ($7.0 billion), and computer and electronic products ($6.1 billion).[120]

Services

By the early 2000s, Illinois's economy had moved toward a dependence on high-value-added services, such as financial trading, higher education, law, logistics, and medicine. 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. Other important non-manufacturing industries include publishing, tourism, and energy production and distribution.

Investments

Venture capitalists funded a total of approximately $62 billion in the U.S. economy in 2016. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $1.1 billion. Similarly, in FY 2016, the federal government spent $461 billion on contracts in the U.S. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $8.7 billion.[121]

Energy

See also: List of power stations in Illinois and Solar power in Illinois

Illinois is a net importer of fuels for energy, despite large coal resources and some minor oil production. Illinois exports electricity, ranking fifth among states in electricity production and seventh in electricity consumption.[122]

Coal

The coal industry of Illinois has its origins in the middle 19th century, when entrepreneurs such as Jacob Loose discovered coal in locations such as Sangamon County. Jacob Bunn contributed to the development of the Illinois coal industry, and was a founder and owner of the Western Coal & Mining Company of Illinois. About 68% of Illinois has coal-bearing strata of the Pennsylvanian geologic period. According to the Illinois State Geological Survey, 211 billion tons of bituminous coal are estimated to lie under the surface, having a total heating value greater than the estimated oil deposits in the Arabian Peninsula.[123] However, this coal has a high sulfur content, which causes acid rain, unless special equipment is used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.[27][30][58] Many Illinois power plants are not equipped to burn high-sulfur coal. In 1999, Illinois produced 40.4 million tons of coal, but only 17 million tons (42%) of Illinois coal was consumed in Illinois. Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states and countries. In 2008, Illinois exported three million tons of coal, and was projected to export nine million in 2011, as demand for energy grows in places such as China, India, and elsewhere in Asia and Europe.[124] As of 2010, Illinois was ranked third in recoverable coal reserves at producing mines in the nation.[115] Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states, while much of the coal burned for power in Illinois (21 million tons in 1998) is mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.[122]

Mattoon was chosen as the site for the Department of Energy's FutureGen project, a 275-megawatt experimental zero emission coal-burning power plant that the DOE just gave a second round of funding. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project.[125]

Petroleum

Illinois is a leading refiner of petroleum in the American Midwest, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 900,000 bbl/d (140,000 m3/d). However, Illinois has very limited crude oil proved reserves that account for less than 1% of the U.S. total reserves. Residential heating is 81% natural gas compared to less than 1% heating oil. Illinois is ranked 14th in oil production among states, with a daily output of approximately 28,000 bbl (4,500 m3) in 2005.[126][127]

Nuclear power

Main article: Nuclear power in the United States
 
Average annual wind power distribution for Illinois, 50 m (160 ft) height above ground (2009)

Nuclear power arguably began in Illinois with the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor, built on the University of Chicago campus. There are six operating nuclear power plants in Illinois: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities.[128] With the exception of the single-unit Clinton plant, each of these facilities has two reactors. Three reactors have been permanently shut down and are in various stages of decommissioning: Dresden-1 and Zion-1 and 2. Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation. Generation from its nuclear power plants accounted for 12 percent of the nation's total.[115] In 2007, 48% of Illinois's electricity was generated using nuclear power.[129] The Morris Operation is the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.

Wind power

Main article: Wind power in Illinois

Illinois has seen growing interest in the use of wind power for electrical generation.[130] Most of Illinois was rated in 2009 as "marginal or fair" for wind energy production by the U.S. Department of Energy, with some western sections rated "good" and parts of the south rated "poor".[131] These ratings are for wind turbines with 50 m (160 ft) hub heights; newer wind turbines are taller, enabling them to reach stronger winds farther from the ground. As a result, more areas of Illinois have become prospective wind farm sites. As of September 2009, Illinois had 1116.06 MW of installed wind power nameplate capacity with another 741.9 MW under construction.[132] Illinois ranked ninth among U.S. states in installed wind power capacity, and sixteenth by potential capacity.[132] Large wind farms in Illinois include Twin Groves, Rail Splitter, EcoGrove, and Mendota Hills.[132]

As of 2007, wind energy represented only 1.7% of Illinois's energy production, and it was estimated that wind power could provide 5–10% of the state's energy needs.[133][134] Also, the Illinois General Assembly mandated in 2007 that by 2025, 25% of all electricity generated in Illinois is to come from renewable resources.[135]

Biofuels

Illinois is ranked second in corn production among U.S. states, and Illinois corn is used to produce 40% of the ethanol consumed in the United States.[114] The Archer Daniels Midland corporation in Decatur, Illinois, is the world's leading producer of ethanol from corn.

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), the world's only facility dedicated to researching the ways and means of converting corn (maize) to ethanol is located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.[136][137]

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of the partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a $500 million biofuels research project funded by petroleum giant BP.[138][139]

Taxes

Tax is collected by the Illinois Department of Revenue. State income tax is calculated by multiplying net income by a flat rate. In 1990, that rate was set at 3%, but in 2010, the General Assembly voted for a temporary increase in the rate to 5%; the new rate went into effect on January 1, 2011; the personal income rate partially sunset on January 1, 2015, to 3.75%, while the corporate income tax fell to 5.25%.[140][141] Illinois failed to pass a budget from 2015 to 2017, after the 736-day budget impasse, a budget was passed in Illinois after lawmakers overturned Governor Bruce Rauner's veto; this budget raised the personal income rate to 4.95% and the corporate rate to 7%.[142] There are two rates for state sales tax: 6.25% for general merchandise and 1% for qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances.[143] The property tax is a major source of tax revenue for local government taxing districts. The property tax is a local—not state—tax, imposed by local government taxing districts, which include counties, townships, municipalities, school districts, and special taxation districts. The property tax in Illinois is imposed only on real property.[27][30][58]

On May 1, 2019, the Illinois Senate voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would have stricken language from the Illinois Constitution requiring a flat state income tax, in a 73–44 vote. If approved, the amendment would have allowed the state legislature to impose a graduated income tax based on annual income. The governor, J.B. Pritzker, approved the bill on May 27, 2019. It was scheduled for a 2020 general election ballot vote[144][145] and required 60 percent voter approval to effectively amend the state constitution.[146] The amendment was not approved by Illinoisans, with 55.1% of voters voting "No" on approval and 44.9% voting "Yes."[147]

As of 2017 Chicago had the highest state and local sales tax rate for a U.S. city with a populations above 200,000, at 10.250%.[148] The state of Illinois has the second highest rate of real estate tax: 2.31%, which is second only to New Jersey at 2.44%.[149]

Toll roads are a de facto user tax on the citizens and visitors to the state of Illinois. Illinois ranks seventh out of the 11 states with the most miles of toll roads, at 282.1 miles. Chicago ranks fourth in most expensive toll roads in America by the mile, with the Chicago Skyway charging 51.2 cents per mile.[150] Illinois also has the 11th highest gasoline tax by state, at 37.5 cents per gallon.[151]

Culture

Museums

For a more comprehensive list, see List of museums in Illinois.

Illinois has numerous museums; the greatest concentration of these are in Chicago. Several museums in Chicago are ranked as some of the best in the world. These include the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

The modern Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is the largest and most attended presidential library in the country. The Illinois State Museum boasts a collection of 13.5 million objects that tell the story of Illinois life, land, people, and art. The ISM is among only 5% of the nation's museums that are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Other historical museums in the state include the Polish Museum of America in Chicago; Magnolia Manor in Cairo; Easley Pioneer Museum in Ipava; the Elihu Benjamin Washburne; Ulysses S. Grant Homes, both in Galena; and the Chanute Air Museum, located on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul.

The Chicago metropolitan area also hosts two zoos: The Brookfield Zoo, located about ten miles west of the city center in suburban Brookfield, contains more than 2,300 animals and covers 216 acres (87 ha). The Lincoln Park Zoo is located in Lincoln Park on Chicago's North Side, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Loop. The zoo accounts for more than 35 acres (14 ha) of the park.

Music

Main article: Music of Illinois

Illinois is a leader in music education, having hosted the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference since 1946, as well being home to the Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA, formerly IMEA), one of the largest professional music educator's organizations in the country. Each summer since 2004, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents dozens of performances throughout the region. Past featured artists include the Eroica Trio and violinist David Kim.

Chicago, in the northeast corner of the state, is a major center for music[152] in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues (greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll), and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.

The Great Migration of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to the city, resulting in Chicago blues and "Chicago-style" Dixieland jazz. Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats included Nat King Cole, Gene Ammons, Benny Goodman, and Bud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for its soul music.

In the early 1930s, Gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due to Thomas A. Dorsey's contributions at Pilgrim Baptist Church.

In the 1980s and 1990s, heavy rock, punk, and hip hop also became popular in Chicago. Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Chicago Sinfonietta.[153]

Movies

John Hughes, who moved from Grosse Pointe to Northbrook, based many films of his in Chicago, and its suburbs. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, and all his films take place in the fictional Shermer, Illinois (the original name of Northbrook was Shermerville, and Hughes's High School, Glenbrook North High School, is on Shermer Road). Most locations in his films include Glenbrook North, the former Maine North High School, the Ben Rose House in Highland Park, and the famous Home Alone house in Winnetka, Illinois.

Sports

For a more comprehensive list, see List of professional sports teams in Illinois.
 
Soldier Field, Chicago

Major league sports

As one of the United States' major metropolises, all major sports leagues have teams headquartered in Chicago.

Minor league sports

Many minor league teams also call Illinois their home. They include:

College sports

The state features 13 athletic programs that compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of U.S. college sports.

The two most prominent are the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats, both members of the Big Ten Conference and the only ones competing in one of the so-called "Power Five conferences". The Fighting Illini football team has won five national championships and three Rose Bowl Games, whereas the men's basketball team has won 17 conference seasons and played five Final Fours. Meanwhile, the Wildcats have won eight football conference championships and one Rose Bowl Game.

The Northern Illinois Huskies from DeKalb, Illinois compete in the Mid-American Conference winning four conference championships and earning a bid in the Orange Bowl along with producing Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch at quarterback. The Huskies are the state's only other team competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of NCAA football.

Four schools have football programs that compete in the second level of Division I football, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Illinois State Redbirds (Normal, adjacent to Bloomington) and Southern Illinois Salukis (representing Southern Illinois University's main campus in Carbondale) are members of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) for non-football sports and the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC). The Western Illinois Leathernecks (Macomb) are full members of the Summit League, which does not sponsor football, and also compete in the MVFC. The Eastern Illinois Panthers (Charleston) are members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).

The city of Chicago is home to four Division I programs that do not sponsor football. The DePaul Blue Demons, with main campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop, are members of the Big East Conference. The Loyola Ramblers, with their main campus straddling the Edgewater and Rogers Park community areas on the city's far north side, compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The UIC Flames, from the Near West Side next to the Loop, are in the MVC. The Chicago State Cougars, from the city's south side, are one of only two all-sports independents in Division I after leaving the Western Athletic Conference in 2022.

Finally, two non-football Division I programs are located downstate. The Bradley Braves (Peoria) are MVC members, and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars (in the Metro East region across the Mississippi River from St. Louis) compete in the OVC.

Former Chicago sports franchises

Folded teams

The city was formerly home to several other teams that either failed to survive or belonged to leagues that folded.

Relocated teams

The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, who currently play in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona, played in Chicago as the Chicago Cardinals, until moving to St. Louis, Missouri after the 1959 season. An NBA expansion team known as the Chicago Packers in 1961–1962, and as the Chicago Zephyrs the following year, moved to Baltimore after the 1962–1963 season. The franchise is now known as the Washington Wizards.

Professional sports teams outside Chicago

The Peoria Chiefs are a High-A minor league baseball team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Schaumburg Boomers, Southern Illinois Miners, Gateway Grizzlies, Joliet Slammers and Windy City ThunderBolts all belong to the independent Frontier League. Additionally, the Kane County Cougars play in the American Association and the Lake County Fielders were members of the former North American League.

In addition to the Chicago Wolves, the AHL also has the Rockford IceHogs serving as the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. The second incarnation of the Peoria Rivermen plays in the SPHL.

Motor racing

Motor racing oval tracks at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, the Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero and the Gateway International Raceway in Madison, near St. Louis, have hosted NASCAR, CART, and IRL races, whereas the Sports Car Club of America, among other national and regional road racing clubs, have visited the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, the Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit and the former Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpentersville. Illinois also has several short tracks and dragstrips. The dragstrip at Gateway International Raceway and the Route 66 Raceway, which sits on the same property as the Chicagoland Speedway, both host NHRA drag races.

Golf

Illinois features several golf courses, such as Olympia Fields, Medinah, Midlothian, Cog Hill, and Conway Farms, which have often hosted the BMW Championship, Western Open, and Women's Western Open.

Also, the state has hosted 13 editions of the U.S. Open (latest at Olympia Fields in 2003), six editions of the PGA Championship (latest at Medinah in 2006), three editions of the U.S. Women's Open (latest at The Merit Club), the 2009 Solheim Cup (at Rich Harvest Farms), and the 2012 Ryder Cup (at Medinah).

The John Deere Classic is a regular PGA Tour event played in the Quad Cities since 1971, whereas the Encompass Championship is a Champions Tour event since 2013. Previously, the LPGA State Farm Classic was an LPGA Tour event from 1976 to 2011.

Parks and recreation

For a more comprehensive list, see List of protected areas of Illinois.

The Illinois state parks system began in 1908 with what is now Fort Massac State Park, becoming the first park in a system encompassing more than 60 parks and about the same number of recreational and wildlife areas.

Areas under the protection of the National Park Service include: the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor near Lockport,[156] the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the American Discovery Trail,[157] and the Pullman National Monument. The federal government also manages the Shawnee National Forest and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Law and politics

Main articles: Law of Illinois and Politics of Illinois

In a 2020 study, Illinois was ranked as the 4th easiest state for citizens to vote in.[158]

State government

Main article: Government of Illinois

The government of Illinois, under the Constitution of Illinois, has three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices, with the governor as chief executive. Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly. The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and lower courts.

The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature, composed of the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives and the 59-member Illinois Senate. The members of the General Assembly are elected at the beginning of each even-numbered year. The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) are the codified statutes of a general and permanent nature.[159][160]

The executive branch is composed of six elected officers and their offices as well as numerous other departments.[161] The six elected officers are:[161] Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer. The government of Illinois has numerous departments, agencies, boards and commissions, but the so-called code departments provide most of the state's services.[161][162]

The Judiciary of Illinois is the unified court system of Illinois. It consists of the Supreme Court, Appellate Court, and Circuit Courts. The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system.

The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties, townships, precincts, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose districts.[163] The basic subdivision of Illinois are the 102 counties.[164] Eighty-five of the 102 counties are in turn divided into townships and precincts.[164][165] Municipal governments are the cities, villages, and incorporated towns.[164] Some localities possess home rule, which allows them to govern themselves to a certain extent.[166]

Party balance

Illinois is a Democratic stronghold.[167] Historically, Illinois was a political swing state, with near-parity existing between the Republican and the Democratic parties. However, in recent elections, the Democratic Party has gained ground, and Illinois has come to be seen as a solid "blue" state in presidential campaigns.[168][169] Votes from Chicago and most of Cook County have long been strongly Democratic. However, the "collar counties" (the suburbs surrounding Chicago's Cook County, Illinois), can be seen as moderate voting districts.[170][171] College towns like Carbondale, Champaign, and Normal also lean Democratic.

 
Governor J. B. Pritzker (D)

Republicans continue to prevail in the rural areas of northern and central Illinois, as well as southern Illinois outside of East St. Louis. From 1920 until 1972, Illinois was carried by the victor of each of these 14 presidential elections.[172] In fact, the state was long seen as a national bellwether,[173] supporting the winner in every election in the 20th century, except for 1916 and 1976. By contrast, Illinois has trended more toward the Democratic party, and has voted for their presidential candidates in the last six elections; in 2000, George W. Bush became the first Republican to win the presidency without carrying either Illinois or Vermont. Local politician and Chicago resident Barack Obama easily won the state's 21 electoral votes in 2008, with 61.9% of the vote. In 2010, incumbent governor Pat Quinn was re-elected with 47% of the vote, while Republican Mark Kirk was elected to the Senate with 48% of the vote. In 2012, President Obama easily carried Illinois again, with 58% to Republican candidate Mitt Romney's 41%. In 2014, Republican Bruce Rauner defeated Governor Quinn 50% to 46% to become Illinois's first Republican governor in 12 years after being sworn in on January 12, 2015, while Democratic senator Dick Durbin was re-elected with 53% of the vote. In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried Illinois with 55% of the vote, and Tammy Duckworth defeated incumbent Mark Kirk 54% to 40%. George W. Bush and Donald Trump are the only Republican presidential candidates to win without carrying either Illinois or Vermont. In 2018, Democrat JB Pritzker defeated the incumbent Bruce Rauner for the governorship with 54% of the vote.

History of corruption

Main article: Political corruption in Illinois

Politics in the state have been infamous for highly visible corruption cases, as well as for crusading reformers, such as governors Adlai Stevenson and James R. Thompson. In 2006, former governor George Ryan was convicted of racketeering and bribery, leading to a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence. In 2008, then-Governor Rod Blagojevich was served with a criminal complaint on corruption charges, stemming from allegations that he conspired to sell the vacated Senate seat left by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder. Subsequently, on December 7, 2011, Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for those charges, as well as perjury while testifying during the case, totaling 18 convictions. Blagojevich was impeached and convicted by the legislature, resulting in his removal from office. In the late 20th century, Congressman Dan Rostenkowski was imprisoned for mail fraud; former governor and federal judge Otto Kerner, Jr. was imprisoned for bribery; Secretary of State Paul Powell was investigated and found to have gained great wealth through bribes, and State Auditor of Public Accounts (Comptroller) Orville Hodge was imprisoned for embezzlement. In 1912, William Lorimer, the GOP boss of Chicago, was expelled from the U.S. Senate for bribery and in 1921, Governor Len Small was found to have defrauded the state of a million dollars.[30][58][174]

U.S. presidential elections

Main article: United States presidential elections in Illinois

Illinois has shown a strong presence in presidential elections. Three presidents have claimed Illinois as their political base when running for president: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and most recently Barack Obama. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but he moved to Illinois at age 21. He served in the General Assembly and represented the 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives before his election to the presidency in 1860. Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio and had a military career that precluded settling down, but on the eve of the Civil War and approaching middle age, he moved to Illinois and thus utilized the state as his home and political base when running for president. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and made Illinois his home after graduating from law school, and later represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate. He then became president in 2008, running as a candidate from his Illinois base.

Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois, in the city of Tampico, raised in Dixon, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College, outside Peoria. Reagan later moved to California during his young adulthood. He then became an actor, and later became California's Governor before being elected president.

Hillary Clinton was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and became the first woman to represent a major political party in the general election of the U.S. presidency. Clinton ran from a platform based in New York State.

African-American U.S. senators

Eleven African-Americans have served as members of the United States Senate. Of which three have represented Illinois, the most of any single state: Carol Moseley-Braun,[175] Barack Obama,[176] and Roland Burris, who was appointed to replace Obama after his election to the presidency. Moseley-Braun was the first African-American woman to become a U.S. Senator.

Political families

Three families from Illinois have played particularly prominent roles in the Democratic Party, gaining both statewide and national fame.

Stevenson

The Stevenson family, initially rooted in central Illinois and later based in the Chicago metropolitan area, has provided four generations of Illinois officeholders.

Daley

The Daley family's powerbase was in Chicago.

Pritzker

The Pritzker family is based in Chicago and have played important roles in both the private and the public sectors.

Education

Illinois State Board of education

Main article: Illinois State Board of Education

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is autonomous of the governor and the state legislature, and administers public education in the state. Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual public schools, but the ISBE audits performance of public schools with the Illinois School Report Card. The ISBE also makes recommendations to state leaders concerning education spending and policies.

Primary and secondary schools

See also: List of school districts in Illinois and List of high schools in Illinois

Education is compulsory for ages 7–17 in Illinois. Schools are commonly, but not exclusively, divided into three tiers of primary and secondary education: elementary school, middle school or junior high school, and high school. District territories are often complex in structure. Many areas in the state are actually located in two school districts—one for high school, the other for elementary and middle schools. And such districts do not necessarily share boundaries. A given high school may have several elementary districts that feed into it, yet some of those feeder districts may themselves feed into multiple high school districts.

Colleges and universities

For a more comprehensive list, see List of colleges and universities in Illinois.
 
University of Illinois
 
University of Chicago

Using the criterion established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, there are eleven "National Universities" in the state.

The University of Chicago is continuously ranked as one of the world's top ten universities on various independent university rankings, and its Booth School of Business, along with Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management consistently rank within the top five graduate business schools in the country and top ten globally. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often ranked among the best engineering schools in the world and in United States.

As of 19 August 2010, six of these rank in the "first tier" among the top 500 National Universities in the nation, as determined by the U.S. News & World Report rankings: the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Loyola University Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Northern Illinois University.[177]

Illinois also has more than twenty additional accredited four-year universities, both public and private, and dozens of small liberal arts colleges across the state. Additionally, Illinois supports 49 public community colleges in the Illinois Community College System.

School financing

Schools in Illinois are funded primarily by property taxes, based on state assessment of property values, rather than direct state contributions. Scholar Tracy Steffes has described Illinois public education as historically “inequitable,” a system where one of “the wealthiest of states” is “the stingiest in its support for education.” There have been several attempts to reform school funding in Illinois. The most notable attempt came in 1973 with the adoption of the Illinois Resource Equalizer Formula, a measure through which it was hoped funding could be collected and distributed to Illinois schools more equitably. However, opposition from affluent Illinois communities who objected to having to pay for the less well-off school districts (many of them Black majority communities, produced by redlining, white flight, and other “soft” segregation methods) resulted in the formula's abolition in the late 1980s.[178]

Infrastructure

Transportation

See also: List of airports in Illinois, List of Illinois Routes, List of Illinois railroads, and Category:Illinois waterways

Because of its central location and its proximity to the Rust Belt and Grain Belt, Illinois is a national crossroads for air, auto, rail, and truck traffic.

Airports

From 1962 until 1998, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) was the busiest airport in the world, measured both in terms of total flights and passengers. While it was surpassed by Atlanta's Hartsfield in 1998 (as Chicago splits its air traffic between O'Hare and Midway airports, while Atlanta uses only one airport), with 59.3 million domestic passengers annually, along with 11.4 million international passengers in 2008,[179] O'Hare consistently remains one of the two or three busiest airports globally, and in some years still ranks number one in total flights. It is a major hub for both United Airlines and American Airlines, and a major airport expansion project is currently underway. Midway Airport (MDW), which had been the busiest airport in the world at one point until it was supplanted by O'Hare as the busiest airport in 1962, is now the secondary airport in the Chicago metropolitan area and still ranks as one of the nation's busiest airports. Midway is a major hub for Southwest Airlines and services many other carriers as well. Midway served 17.3 million domestic and international passengers in 2008.[180]

Rail

 
Illinois major rail network

Illinois has an extensive passenger and freight rail transportation network. Chicago is a national Amtrak hub and in-state passengers are served by Amtrak's Illinois Service, featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Saluki, the Chicago to Quincy Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr, and the Chicago to St. Louis Lincoln Service. Currently there is trackwork on the Chicago–St. Louis line to bring the maximum speed up to 110 mph (180 km/h), which would reduce the trip time by an hour and a half. Nearly every North American railway meets at Chicago, making it the largest and most active rail hub in the country. Extensive commuter rail is provided in the city proper and some immediate suburbs by the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system. One of the largest suburban commuter rail system in the United States, operated by Metra, uses existing rail lines to provide direct commuter rail access for hundreds of suburbs to the city and beyond.

In addition to the state's rail lines, the Mississippi River and Illinois River provide major transportation routes for the state's agricultural interests. Lake Michigan gives Illinois access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Interstate highway system

Main article: List of Interstate Highways in Illinois

The Interstate Highways in Illinois are all segments of the Interstate Highway System that are owned and maintained by the state.[181]

Illinois has the distinction of having the most primary (two-digit) interstates pass through it among all the 50 states with 13. Illinois also ranks third among the fifty states with the most interstate mileage, coming in after California and Texas, which are much bigger states in area.[182]

Major U.S. Interstate highways crossing the state include: Interstate 24 (I-24), I-39, I-41, I-55, I-57, I-64, I-70, I-72, I-74, I-80, I-88, I-90, and I-94.

U.S. highway system

Main article: List of U.S. Highways in Illinois

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is responsible for maintaining the U.S Highways in Illinois. The system in Illinois consists of 21 primary highways.

Among the U.S. highways that pass through the state, the primary ones are: US 6, US 12, US 14, US 20, US 24, US 30, US 34, US 36, US 40, US 41, US 45, US 50, US 51, US 52, US 54, US 60, US 62, and US 67.

Gallery

  •  

    Standard license plate introduced in 2017

  •  

    Standard license plate 2001 to 2016

  •  

    Illinois license plate design used throughout the 1980s and 1990s, displaying the Land of Lincoln slogan that has been featured on the state's plates since 1954

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry.

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Further reading

External links

  • Official website  
  • Illinois: State Resource Guide, from the Library of Congress
  •   Geographic data related to Illinois at OpenStreetMap
  • Illinois Office of Tourism
  • Illinois - State Energy Profile Overview U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
  • State Fact Sheets: Illinois USDA's Economic Research Service
  • USGS Central Midwest Water Science Center
Preceded by List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
Admitted on December 3, 1818 (21st) 		Succeeded by

Coordinates: 40°N 89°W / 40°N 89°W / 40; -89 (State of Illinois)

January 12, 2023
illinois, this, article, about, state, river, river, other, uses, disambiguation, ɔɪ, listen, state, midwestern, united, states, largest, metropolitan, areas, include, chicago, metropolitan, area, metro, east, section, greater, louis, other, metropolitan, area. This article is about the U S state For the river see Illinois River For other uses see Illinois disambiguation Illinois ˌ ɪ l e ˈ n ɔɪ listen IL e NOY is a state in the Midwestern United States Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area and the Metro East section of Greater St Louis Other metropolitan areas include Peoria and Rockford as well as Springfield its capital Of the fifty U S states Illinois has the fifth largest gross domestic product GDP the sixth largest population and the 25th largest land area IllinoisStateState of IllinoisFlagSealNickname s Land of Lincoln Prairie State The Inland Empire StateMotto s State Sovereignty National UnionAnthem Illinois source source source track Map of the United States with Illinois highlightedCountryUnited StatesBefore statehoodIllinois TerritoryAdmitted to the UnionDecember 3 1818 21st CapitalSpringfieldLargest cityChicagoLargest metro and urban areasChicagolandGovernment GovernorJ B Pritzker D Lieutenant GovernorJuliana Stratton D LegislatureGeneral Assembly Upper houseIllinois Senate Lower houseIllinois House of RepresentativesJudiciarySupreme Court of IllinoisU S senatorsDick Durbin D Tammy Duckworth D U S House delegation14 Democrats3 Republicans list Area Total57 915 sq mi 149 997 km2 Land55 593 sq mi 143 969 km2 Water2 320 sq mi 5 981 km2 3 99 Rank25thDimensions Length390 mi 628 km Width210 mi 338 km Elevation600 ft 180 m Highest elevation Charles Mound 1 2 3 1 235 ft 376 4 m Lowest elevation Confluence of Mississippi River and Ohio River 2 3 280 ft 85 m Population 2020 Total12 812 508 4 Rank6th Density232 sq mi 89 4 km2 Rank12th Median household income 65 030 5 Income rank17thDemonymsIllinoisanLanguage Official languageEnglish 6 Spoken languageEnglish 80 8 Spanish 14 9 Other 5 1 Time zoneUTC 06 00 CST Summer DST UTC 05 00 CDT USPS abbreviationILISO 3166 codeUS ILTraditional abbreviationIll Latitude36 58 N to 42 30 NLongitude87 30 W to 91 31 WWebsitewww wbr illinois wbr govIllinois state symbolsFlag of IllinoisLiving insigniaAmphibianEastern tiger salamanderBirdNorthern cardinalButterflyMonarch butterflyFishBluegillFlowerVioletGrassBig bluestemMammalWhite tailed deerReptilePainted turtleTreeWhite oakInanimate insigniaDanceSquare danceFoodGold Rush Apple popcornFossilTully monsterMineralFluoriteRockDolostoneSlogan Land of Lincoln SoilDrummer silty clay loamState route markerState quarterReleased in 2003Lists of United States state symbolsIllinois has a highly diverse economy with the global city of Chicago in the northeast major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center and natural resources such as coal timber and petroleum in the south Owing to its central location and favorable geography the state is a major transportation hub the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway Additionally the Mississippi Ohio and Wabash rivers form parts of the state s boundaries Chicago s O Hare International Airport has been among the world s ten busiest airports for decades Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria 7 What is now Illinois was inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous cultures including the advanced civilization centered in the Cahokia region The French were the first Europeans to arrive settling near the Mississippi River in the 17th century in the region they called Illinois Country as part of the sprawling colony of New France Following U S independence in 1783 American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River and the population grew from south to north Illinois was part of the United States oldest territory the Northwest Territory and in 1818 it achieved statehood The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world benefiting from its location as one of the few natural harbors in southwestern Lake Michigan 8 The invention of the self scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state s rich prairie into some of the world s most productive and valuable farmland attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden In the mid 19th century the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade commerce and settlement making the state a transportation hub for the nation 9 By 1900 the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe Illinois became one of America s most industrialized states and remains a major manufacturing center 10 The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans particularly in Chicago who founded the city s famous jazz and blues cultures 11 12 Chicago became a leading cultural economic and population center and is today one of the world s major commercial centers its metropolitan area informally referred to as Chicagoland holds about 65 of the state s 12 8 million residents Three U S presidents have been elected while living in Illinois Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S Grant and Barack Obama additionally Ronald Reagan was born and raised in the state Today Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln which has been displayed on its license plates since 1954 13 14 The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Pre European 2 2 European exploration and settlement prior to 1800 2 3 19th century 2 3 1 Prior to statehood 2 3 2 The State of Illinois prior to the Civil War 2 3 3 Civil War and after 2 4 20th century 2 5 21st century 3 Geology 4 Geography 4 1 Boundaries 4 2 Topography 4 3 Divisions 4 4 Climate 5 Demographics 5 1 2019 American Community Survey 5 2 Birth data 5 3 Urban areas 5 4 Languages 5 5 Religion 5 5 1 Christianity 5 5 2 Other Abrahamic religious communities 5 5 3 Other religions 6 Economy 6 1 Agriculture 6 2 Manufacturing 6 3 Services 6 4 Investments 6 5 Energy 6 5 1 Coal 6 5 2 Petroleum 6 5 3 Nuclear power 6 5 4 Wind power 6 5 5 Biofuels 6 6 Taxes 7 Culture 7 1 Museums 7 2 Music 7 3 Movies 7 4 Sports 7 4 1 Major league sports 7 4 2 Minor league sports 7 4 3 College sports 7 4 4 Former Chicago sports franchises 7 4 4 1 Folded teams 7 4 4 2 Relocated teams 7 4 5 Professional sports teams outside Chicago 7 4 6 Motor racing 7 4 7 Golf 8 Parks and recreation 9 Law and politics 9 1 State government 9 2 Party balance 9 3 History of corruption 9 4 U S presidential elections 9 5 African American U S senators 9 6 Political families 9 6 1 Stevenson 9 6 2 Daley 9 6 3 Pritzker 10 Education 10 1 Illinois State Board of education 10 2 Primary and secondary schools 10 3 Colleges and universities 10 4 School financing 11 Infrastructure 11 1 Transportation 11 1 1 Airports 11 1 2 Rail 11 1 3 Interstate highway system 11 1 4 U S highway system 11 2 Gallery 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External linksEtymologySee also Illinois Confederation and List of counties in Illinois Illinois is the modern spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records 15 American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami Illinois language with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois 16 17 This etymology is not supported by the Illinois language citation needed as the word for man is ireniwa and plural of man is ireniwaki The name Illiniwek has also been said to mean tribe of superior men 18 which is a false etymology The name Illinois derives from the Miami Illinois verb irenwe wa he speaks the regular way This was taken into the Ojibwe language perhaps in the Ottawa dialect and modified into ilinwe pluralized as ilinwe k The French borrowed these forms spelling the we ending as ois a transliteration of that sound in the French of that time The current spelling form Illinois began to appear in the early 1670s when French colonists had settled in the western area The Illinois s name for themselves as attested in all three of the French missionary period dictionaries of Illinois was Inoka of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms 19 20 HistoryMain article History of Illinois Pre European Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County Illinois American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans The Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7 000 years of continuous habitation Cahokia the largest regional chiefdom and Urban Center of the Pre Columbian Mississippian culture was located near present day Collinsville Illinois They built an urban complex of more than 100 platform and burial mounds a 50 acre 20 ha plaza larger than 35 football fields 21 and a woodhenge of sacred cedar all in a planned design expressing the culture s cosmology Monks Mound the center of the site is the largest Pre Columbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico It is 100 ft 30 m high 951 ft 290 m long 836 ft 255 m wide and covers 13 8 acres 5 6 ha 22 It contains about 814 000 cu yd 622 000 m3 of earth 23 It was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 ft 32 m in length and 48 ft 15 m in width covered an area 5 000 sq ft 460 m2 and been as much as 50 ft 15 m high making its peak 150 ft 46 m above the level of the plaza The finely crafted ornaments and tools recovered by archaeologists at Cahokia include elaborate ceramics finely sculptured stonework carefully embossed and engraved copper and mica sheets and one funeral blanket for an important chief fashioned from 20 000 shell beads These artifacts indicate that Cahokia was truly an urban center with clustered housing markets and specialists in toolmaking hide dressing potting jewelry making shell engraving weaving and salt making 24 The civilization vanished in the 15th century for unknown reasons but historians and archeologists have speculated that the people depleted the area of resources Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare According to Suzanne Austin Alchon At one site in the central Illinois River valley one third of all adults died as a result of violent injuries 25 The next major power in the region was the Illinois Confederation or Illini a political alliance 26 As the Illini declined during the Beaver Wars era members of the Algonquian speaking Potawatomi Miami Sauk and other tribes including the Fox Meskwaki Iowa Kickapoo Mascouten Piankeshaw Shawnee Wea and Winnebago Ho Chunk came into the area from the east and north around the Great Lakes 27 28 European exploration and settlement prior to 1800 Main articles New France Louisiana New France Canada New France Illinois Country French and Indian War Treaty of Paris 1763 Province of Quebec 1763 1791 Indian Reserve 1763 American Revolutionary War Western theater of the American Revolutionary War Illinois County Virginia Treaty of Paris 1783 Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory Illinois in 1718 approximate modern state area highlighted from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L Isle 29 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673 Marquette soon after founded a mission at the Grand Village of the Illinois in Illinois Country In 1680 French explorers under Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti constructed a fort at the site of present day Peoria and in 1682 a fort atop Starved Rock in today s Starved Rock State Park French Empire Canadiens came south to settle particularly along the Mississippi River and Illinois was part of first New France and then of La Louisiane until 1763 when it passed to the British with their defeat of France in the Seven Years War The small French settlements continued although many French migrated west to Ste Genevieve and St Louis Missouri to evade British rule 30 A few British soldiers were posted in Illinois but few British or American settlers moved there as the Crown made it part of the territory reserved for Indians west of the Appalachians and then part of the British Province of Quebec In 1778 George Rogers Clark claimed Illinois County for Virginia In a compromise Virginia and other states that made various claims ceded the area to the new United States in the 1780s and it became part of the Northwest Territory administered by the federal government and later organized as states 30 19th century Main articles Indiana Territory Organic act List of organic acts Illinois Territory Admission to the Union and List of U S states by date of admission to the Union See also History of Chicago and History of Nauvoo Illinois Prior to statehood The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741 to the French mission at Kaskaskia It was later called the Liberty Bell of the West after it was rung to celebrate U S victory in the Revolution The Illinois Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois The Illinois Territory was created on February 3 1809 with its capital at Kaskaskia an early French settlement During the discussions leading up to Illinois s admission to the Union the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice 31 The original provisions of the Northwest Ordinance had specified a boundary that would have been tangent to the southern tip of Lake Michigan Such a boundary would have left Illinois with no shoreline on Lake Michigan at all However as Indiana had successfully been granted a 10 mi 16 km northern extension of its boundary to provide it with a usable lakefront the original bill for Illinois statehood submitted to Congress on January 23 1818 stipulated a northern border at the same latitude as Indiana s which is defined as 10 miles north of the southernmost extremity of Lake Michigan However the Illinois delegate Nathaniel Pope wanted more and lobbied to have the boundary moved further north The final bill passed by Congress included an amendment to shift the border to 42 30 north which is approximately 51 mi 82 km north of the Indiana northern border This shift added 8 500 sq mi 22 000 km2 to the state including the lead mining region near Galena More importantly it added nearly 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the Chicago River Pope and others envisioned a canal that would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers and thus connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi The State of Illinois prior to the Civil War In 1818 Illinois became the 21st U S state The southern portion of Illinois Territory was admitted as the state of Illinois and the rest was joined to Michigan Territory Old State Capitol Abraham Lincoln and other area legislators were instrumental in moving the state capitol to centrally located Springfield in 1839 In 1818 Illinois became the 21st U S state The capital remained at Kaskaskia headquartered in a small building rented by the state In 1819 Vandalia became the capital and over the next 18 years three separate buildings were built to serve successively as the capitol building In 1837 the state legislators representing Sangamon County under the leadership of state representative Abraham Lincoln succeeded in having the capital moved to Springfield 32 where a fifth capitol building was constructed A sixth capitol building was erected in 1867 which continues to serve as the Illinois capitol today Though it was ostensibly a free state there was nonetheless slavery in Illinois The ethnic French had owned black slaves since the 1720s and American settlers had already brought slaves into the area from Kentucky Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordinance but that was not enforced for those already holding slaves When Illinois became a state in 1818 the Ordinance no longer applied and about 900 slaves were held in the state As the southern part of the state later known as Egypt or Little Egypt 33 34 was largely settled by migrants from the South the section was hostile to free blacks Settlers were allowed to bring slaves with them for labor but in 1822 state residents voted against making slavery legal Still most residents opposed allowing free blacks as permanent residents Some settlers brought in slaves seasonally or as house servants 35 The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed In 1853 John A Logan helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans including freedmen from settling in the state 36 The winter of 1830 1831 is called the Winter of the Deep Snow 37 a sudden deep snowfall blanketed the state making travel impossible for the rest of the winter and many travelers perished Several severe winters followed including the Winter of the Sudden Freeze On December 20 1836 a fast moving cold front passed through freezing puddles in minutes and killing many travelers who could not reach shelter The adverse weather resulted in crop failures in the northern part of the state The southern part of the state shipped food north and this may have contributed to its name Little Egypt after the Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt supplying grain to his brothers 38 In 1832 the Black Hawk War was fought in Illinois and present day Wisconsin between the United States and the Sauk Fox Meskwaki and Kickapoo Indian tribes It represents the end of Indian resistance to white settlement in the Chicago region 39 The Indians had been forced to leave their homes and move to Iowa in 1831 when they attempted to return they were attacked and eventually defeated by U S militia The survivors were forced back to Iowa 40 By 1839 the Latter Day Saints had founded a utopian city called Nauvoo formerly called Commerce Located in Hancock County along the Mississippi River Nauvoo flourished and by 1844 briefly surpassed Chicago for the position of the state s largest city 41 42 But in that same year the Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith was killed in the Carthage Jail about 30 miles away from Nauvoo Following a succession crisis Brigham Young led most Latter Day Saints out of Illinois in a mass exodus to present day Utah after close to six years of rapid development Nauvoo quickly declined afterward After it was established in 1833 Chicago gained prominence as a Great Lakes port and then as an Illinois and Michigan Canal port after 1848 and as a rail hub soon afterward By 1857 Chicago was Illinois s largest city 30 With the tremendous growth of mines and factories in the state in the 19th century Illinois was the ground for the formation of labor unions in the United States In 1847 after lobbying by Dorothea L Dix Illinois became one of the first states to establish a system of state supported treatment of mental illness and disabilities replacing local almshouses Dix came into this effort after having met J O King a Jacksonville Illinois businessman who invited her to Illinois where he had been working to build an asylum for the insane With the lobbying expertise of Dix plans for the Jacksonville State Hospital now known as the Jacksonville Developmental Center were signed into law on March 1 1847 43 Civil War and after Main article Illinois in the American Civil War Union troops embarking at Cairo on January 10 1862 During the American Civil War Illinois ranked fourth in soldiers who served more than 250 000 in the Union Army a figure surpassed by only New York Pennsylvania and Ohio Beginning with President Abraham Lincoln s first call for troops and continuing throughout the war Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments which were numbered from the 7th to the 156th regiments Seventeen cavalry regiments were also gathered as well as two light artillery regiments 44 The town of Cairo at the southern tip of the state at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers served as a strategically important supply base and training center for the Union army For several months both General Grant and Admiral Foote had headquarters in Cairo During the Civil War and more so afterwards Chicago s population skyrocketed which increased its prominence The Pullman Strike and Haymarket Riot in particular greatly influenced the development of the American labor movement From Sunday October 8 1871 until Tuesday October 10 1871 the Great Chicago Fire burned in downtown Chicago destroying four sq mi 10 km2 45 20th century At the turn of the 20th century Illinois had a population of nearly 5 million Many people from other parts of the country were attracted to the state by employment caused by the expanding industrial base Whites were 98 of the state s population 46 Bolstered by continued immigration from southern and eastern Europe and by the African American Great Migration from the South Illinois grew and emerged as one of the most important states in the union By the end of the century the population had reached 12 4 million The Century of Progress World s fair was held at Chicago in 1933 Oil strikes in Marion County and Crawford County led to a boom in 1937 and by 1939 Illinois ranked fourth in U S oil production Illinois manufactured 6 1 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II ranking seventh among the 48 states 47 Chicago became an ocean port with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 The seaway and the Illinois Waterway connected Chicago to both the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean In 1960 Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald s franchise in Des Plaines which still exists as a museum with a working McDonald s across the street Illinois had a prominent role in the emergence of the nuclear age In 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project the University of Chicago conducted the first sustained nuclear chain reaction In 1957 Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago activated the first experimental nuclear power generating system in the United States By 1960 the first privately financed nuclear plant in the United States Dresden 1 was dedicated near Morris In 1967 Fermilab a national nuclear research facility near Batavia opened a particle accelerator which was the world s largest for over 40 years With eleven plants currently operating Illinois leads all states in the amount of electricity generated from nuclear power 48 49 In 1961 Illinois became the first state in the nation to adopt the recommendation of the American Law Institute and pass a comprehensive criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy The code also abrogated common law crimes and established an age of consent of 18 50 The state s fourth constitution was adopted in 1970 replacing the 1870 document 51 The first Farm Aid concert was held in Champaign to benefit American farmers in 1985 The worst upper Mississippi River flood of the century the Great Flood of 1993 inundated many towns and thousands of acres of farmland 30 21st century On August 28 2017 Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that prohibited state and local police from arresting anyone solely due to their immigration status or due to federal detainers 52 53 Some fellow Republicans criticized Rauner for his action claiming the bill made Illinois a sanctuary state 54 GeologyMain article Geology of Illinois During the early part of the Paleozoic Era the area that would one day become Illinois was submerged beneath a shallow sea and located near the Equator Diverse marine life lived at this time including trilobites brachiopods and crinoids Changing environmental conditions led to the formation of large coal swamps in the Carboniferous Illinois was above sea level for at least part of the Mesozoic but by its end was again submerged by the Western Interior Seaway This receded by the Eocene Epoch During the Pleistocene Epoch vast ice sheets covered much of Illinois with only the Driftless Area remaining exposed These glaciers carved the basin of Lake Michigan and left behind traces of ancient glacial lakes and moraines 55 GeographyMain article Geography of Illinois Further information List of ecoregions in Illinois Illinois is located in the Midwest region of the United States and is one of the eight states in the Great Lakes region of North America which also includes Ontario Canada Boundaries Illinois s eastern border with Indiana consists of a north south line at 87 31 30 west longitude in Lake Michigan at the north to the Wabash River in the south above Post Vincennes The Wabash River continues as the eastern southeastern border with Indiana until the Wabash enters the Ohio River This marks the beginning of Illinois s southern border with Kentucky which runs along the northern shoreline of the Ohio River 56 Most of the western border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River Kaskaskia is an exclave of Illinois lying west of the Mississippi and reachable only from Missouri The state s northern border with Wisconsin is fixed at 42 30 north latitude The northeastern border of Illinois lies in Lake Michigan within which Illinois shares a water boundary with the state of Michigan as well as Wisconsin and Indiana 27 Topography Charles Mound the highest natural point in Illinois at 1 235 feet 376 m above sea level is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains it does have some minor variation in its elevation In extreme northwestern Illinois the Driftless Area a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography occupies a small part of the state Southern Illinois includes the hilly areas around the Shawnee National Forest Charles Mound located in the Driftless region has the state s highest natural elevation above sea level at 1 235 ft 376 m Other highlands include the Shawnee Hills in the south and there is varying topography along its rivers the Illinois River bisects the state northeast to southwest The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is known as the American Bottom Divisions At 279 feet 85 m above sea level 57 the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers Illinois has three major geographical divisions Northern Illinois is dominated by Chicago metropolitan area or Chicagoland which is the city of Chicago and its suburbs and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding As defined by the federal government the Chicago metro area includes several counties in Illinois Indiana and Wisconsin and has a population of over 9 8 million Chicago itself is a cosmopolitan city densely populated industrialized the transportation hub of the nation and settled by a wide variety of ethnic groups The city of Rockford Illinois s third largest city and center of the state s fourth largest metropolitan area sits along Interstates 39 and 90 some 75 mi 121 km northwest of Chicago The Quad Cities region located along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois had a population of 381 342 in 2011 The midsection of Illinois is the second major division called Central Illinois Historically prairie it is now mainly agricultural and known as the Heart of Illinois It is characterized by small towns and medium small cities The western section west of the Illinois River was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the conspicuous western bulge of the state Agriculture particularly corn and soybeans as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers figure prominently in Central Illinois Cities include Peoria Springfield the state capital Quincy Decatur Bloomington Normal and Champaign Urbana 27 The third division is Southern Illinois comprising the area south of U S Route 50 including Little Egypt near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River Southern Illinois is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia as well as the site of the first state capital at Kaskaskia which today is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River 27 58 This region has a somewhat warmer winter climate different variety of crops including some cotton farming in the past more rugged topography due to the area remaining unglaciated during the Illinoian Stage unlike most of the rest of the state as well as small scale oil deposits and coal mining The Illinois suburbs of St Louis such as East St Louis are located in this region and collectively they are known as the Metro East The other somewhat significant concentration of population in Southern Illinois is the Carbondale Marion Herrin Illinois Combined Statistical Area centered on Carbondale and Marion a two county area that is home to 123 272 residents 27 A portion of southeastern Illinois is part of the extended Evansville Indiana Metro Area locally referred to as the Tri State with Indiana and Kentucky Seven Illinois counties are in the area In addition to these three largely latitudinally defined divisions all of the region outside the Chicago metropolitan area is often called downstate Illinois This term is flexible but is generally meant to mean everything outside the influence of the Chicago area Thus some cities in Northern Illinois such as DeKalb which is west of Chicago and Rockford which is actually north of Chicago are sometimes incorrectly considered to be downstate Climate Main article Climate of Illinois See also St Louis tornado history Koppen climate types of Illinois Illinois has a climate that varies widely throughout the year Because of its nearly 400 mile distance between its northernmost and southernmost extremes as well as its mid continental situation most of Illinois has a humid continental climate Koppen climate classification Dfa with hot humid summers and cold winters The southern part of the state from about Carbondale southward has a humid subtropical climate Koppen Cfa with more moderate winters Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 in 1 219 mm at the southern tip to around 35 in 889 mm in the northern portion of the state Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 in 965 mm in the Chicago area while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 in 356 mm 59 The all time high temperature was 117 F 47 C recorded on July 14 1954 at East St Louis and the all time low temperature was 38 F 39 C recorded on January 31 2019 during the January 2019 North American cold wave at a weather station near Mount Carroll 60 61 and confirmed on March 5 2019 62 This followed the previous record of 36 F 38 C recorded on January 5 1999 near Congerville 62 Prior to the Mount Carroll record a temperature of 37 F 38 C was recorded on January 15 2009 at Rochelle but at a weather station not subjected to the same quality control as official records 63 64 Illinois averages approximately 51 days of thunderstorm activity a year which ranks somewhat above average in the number of thunderstorm days for the United States Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes with an average of 35 occurring annually which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10 000 sq mi 30 000 km2 annually 65 While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states some of Tornado Alley s deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred in the state The Tri State Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people in three states 613 of the victims died in Illinois 66 Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Illinois Cities F City January February March April May June July August September October November DecemberCairo 67 43 25 48 29 59 37 70 46 78 57 86 67 90 71 88 69 81 61 71 49 57 39 46 30Chicago 68 31 16 36 21 47 31 59 42 70 52 81 61 85 65 83 65 75 57 64 45 48 34 36 22Edwardsville 69 36 19 42 24 52 34 64 45 75 55 84 64 89 69 86 66 79 58 68 46 53 35 41 25Moline 70 30 12 36 18 48 29 62 39 73 50 83 60 86 64 84 62 76 53 64 42 48 30 34 18Peoria 71 31 14 37 20 49 30 62 40 73 51 82 60 86 65 84 63 77 54 64 42 49 31 36 20Rockford 72 27 11 33 16 46 27 59 37 71 48 80 58 83 63 81 61 74 52 62 40 46 29 32 17Springfield 73 33 17 39 22 51 32 63 42 74 53 83 62 86 66 84 64 78 55 67 44 51 34 38 23Demographics Illinois 2020 Population Density Map Historical populationCensus Pop 18002 458 181012 282399 7 182055 211349 5 1830157 445185 2 1840476 183202 4 1850851 47078 8 18601 711 951101 1 18702 539 89148 4 18803 077 87121 2 18903 826 35224 3 19004 821 55026 0 19105 638 59116 9 19206 485 28015 0 19307 630 65417 7 19407 897 2413 5 19508 712 17610 3 196010 081 15815 7 197011 113 97610 2 198011 426 5182 8 199011 430 6020 0 200012 419 2938 6 201012 830 6323 3 202012 812 508 0 1 Source 1910 2020 Map of counties in Illinois by racial plurality per the 2020 U S censusNon Hispanic White 40 50 50 60 60 70 70 80 80 90 90 The United States Census Bureau found that the population of Illinois was 12 812 508 in the 2020 United States census moving from the fifth largest state to the sixth largest state losing out to Pennsylvania Illinois population slightly declined in 2020 from the 2010 United States census by just over 18 000 residents and the overall population was quite higher than recent census estimates 74 Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest region Chicago the third most populous city in the United States is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area or Chicagoland as this area is nicknamed Although the Chicago metropolitan area comprises only 9 of the land area of the state it contains 65 of the state s residents The losses of population anticipated from the 2020 census results do not arise from the Chicago metro area rather the declines are from the Downstate counties 75 Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census Race and ethnicity 76 Alone TotalWhite non Hispanic 58 3 58 3 61 3 61 3 Hispanic or Latino a 18 2 18 2 African American non Hispanic 13 9 13 9 15 0 15 Asian 5 8 5 8 6 7 6 7 Native American 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 Pacific Islander 0 02 0 02 0 1 0 1 Other 0 4 0 4 1 1 1 1 Illinois Racial Breakdown of Population Racial composition 1990 77 2000 78 2010 79 White 78 3 73 5 71 5 Black 14 8 15 1 14 5 Asian 2 5 3 4 4 6 Native 0 2 0 2 0 3 Native Hawaiian andother Pacific Islander Other race 4 2 5 8 6 7 Two or more races 1 9 2 3 2019 American Community Survey Racial Makeup of Illinois 2019 80 White alone 71 37 Black alone 14 13 Native American alone 0 26 Asian Alone 5 67 Pacific Islander Alone 0 04 Some other race alone 5 76 Two or more races 2 78 Racial Ethnic Makeup of Illinois excluding Hispanics from racial categories 2019 80 NH Non Hispanic White NH 60 69 Black NH 13 88 Native American NH 0 10 Asian NH 5 60 Pacific Islander NH 0 02 Other NH 0 17 Two or more races NH 2 03 Hispanic Any Race 17 49 Racial Makeup of Hispanics in Illinois 2019 80 White alone 61 05 Black alone 1 40 Native American alone 0 89 Asian Alone 0 36 Pacific Islander Alone 0 07 Other race alone 31 96 Two or more races 4 28 According to 2019 U S Census Bureau estimates Illinois s population was 71 4 White 60 7 Non Hispanic White 5 6 Asian 0 2 Some Other Race 13 9 Black or African American 0 1 Native Americans and Alaskan Native 0 1 Pacific Islander and 2 0 from two or more races 80 The White population continues to remain the largest racial category in Illinois as Hispanics primarily identify as White 61 1 with others identifying as Some Other Race 32 0 Multiracial 4 3 Black 1 4 American Indian and Alaskan Native 0 2 Asian 0 1 and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 0 1 80 By ethnicity 17 5 of the total population is Hispanic Latino of any race and 82 5 is Non Hispanic of any race If treated as a separate category Hispanics are the largest minority group in Illinois 80 The state s most populous ethnic group non Hispanic white has declined from 83 5 in 1970 81 to 60 90 in 2018 82 As of 2011 update 49 4 of Illinois s population younger than age 1 were minorities Note Children born to white Hispanics or to a sole full or partial minority parent are counted as minorities 83 At the 2007 estimates from the U S Census Bureau there were 1 768 518 foreign born inhabitants of the state or 13 8 of the population with 48 4 from Latin America 24 6 from Asia 22 8 from Europe 2 9 from Africa 1 2 from Canada and 0 2 from Oceania Of the foreign born population 43 7 were naturalized U S citizens and 56 3 were not U S citizens 84 In 2007 6 9 of Illinois s population was reported as being under age 5 24 9 under age 18 and 12 1 were age 65 and over Females made up approximately 50 7 of the population 85 According to the 2007 estimates 21 1 of the population had German ancestry 13 3 had Irish ancestry 8 had British ancestry 7 9 had Polish ancestry 6 4 had Italian ancestry 4 6 listed themselves as American 2 4 had Swedish ancestry 2 2 had French ancestry other than Basque 1 6 had Dutch ancestry and 1 4 had Norwegian ancestry 84 Illinois also has large numbers of African Americans and Latinos mostly Mexicans and Puerto Ricans Chicago along the shores of Lake Michigan is the nation s third largest city In 2000 23 3 of Illinois s population lived in the city of Chicago 43 3 in Cook County and 65 6 in the counties of the Chicago metropolitan area Will DuPage Kane Lake and McHenry counties as well as Cook County The remaining population lives in the smaller cities and rural areas that dot the state s plains As of 2000 the state s center of population was at 41 16 42 N 88 22 49 W 41 278216 N 88 380238 W 41 278216 88 380238 located in Grundy County northeast of the village of Mazon 27 30 58 86 Birth data Births do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by ethnicity and by race Live Births by Single Race Ethnicity of Mother Race 2013 87 2014 88 2015 89 2016 90 2017 91 2018 92 2019 93 2020 94 White 119 157 75 9 119 995 75 7 119 630 75 6 Non Hispanic White 85 866 54 7 86 227 54 4 85 424 54 0 82 318 53 3 78 925 52 8 77 244 53 3 74 434 53 1 70 550 52 9 Black 27 692 17 6 28 160 17 8 28 059 17 7 25 619 16 6 25 685 17 2 24 482 16 9 23 258 16 6 22 293 16 7 Asian 9 848 6 3 10 174 6 4 10 222 6 5 10 015 6 5 9 650 6 5 9 452 6 5 9 169 6 5 8 505 6 4 American Indian 234 0 1 227 0 1 205 0 1 110 0 0 133 0 1 129 0 1 119 0 1 79 gt 0 1 Hispanic of any race 33 454 21 3 33 803 21 3 33 902 21 4 32 635 21 1 31 428 21 0 30 362 21 0 30 097 21 5 28 808 21 6 Total Illinois 156 931 100 158 556 100 158 116 100 154 445 100 149 390 100 144 815 100 140 128 100 133 298 100 Since 2016 data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected but included in one Hispanic group persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race Urban areas This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information June 2022 See also Illinois statistical areas and List of municipalities in Illinois Chicago is the largest city in the state and the third most populous city in the United States with its 2020 population of 2 746 388 The U S Census Bureau currently lists seven other cities with populations of over 100 000 within Illinois Based upon the U S Census Bureau s official 2010 population 95 Aurora a Chicago satellite town that eclipsed Rockford for the title of second most populous city in Illinois its 2010 population was 197 899 Rockford at 152 871 is the third largest city in the state and is the largest city in the state not located within the Chicago suburbs Joliet located in metropolitan Chicago is the fourth largest city in the state with a population of 147 433 Naperville a suburb of Chicago is fifth with 141 853 Naperville and Aurora share a boundary along Illinois Route 59 Springfield the state s capital comes in as sixth most populous with 117 352 residents Peoria which decades ago was the second most populous city in the state is seventh with 115 007 The eighth largest and final city in the 100 000 club is Elgin a northwest suburb of Chicago with a 2010 population of 108 188 The most populated city in the state south of Springfield is Belleville with 44 478 people at the 2010 census It is located in the Illinois portion of Greater St Louis often called the Metro East area which has a rapidly growing population of over 700 000 Other major urban areas include the Champaign Urbana Metropolitan Area which has a combined population of almost 230 000 people the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities area with about 215 000 people and the Bloomington Normal area with a combined population of over 165 000 Largest cities or towns in Illinois 2019 U S Census Bureau Estimate 96 Rank Name County Pop Chicago Aurora 1 Chicago Cook 2 693 976 Naperville Joliet2 Aurora Kane 197 7573 Naperville DuPage 148 4494 Joliet Will 147 3445 Rockford Winnebago 145 6096 Springfield Sangamon 114 2307 Elgin Kane Cook 110 8498 Peoria Peoria 110 4179 Champaign Champaign 88 90910 Waukegan Lake 86 075 Languages Main article Languages of Illinois The official language of Illinois is English 97 although between 1923 and 1969 state law gave official status to the American language Nearly 80 of people in Illinois speak English natively and most of the rest speak it fluently as a second language 98 A number of dialects of American English are spoken ranging from Inland Northern American English and African American English around Chicago to Midland American English in Central Illinois to Southern American English in the far south Over 20 of Illinoians speak a language other than English at home of which Spanish is by far the most widespread at more than 12 of the total population 99 A sizeable number of Polish speakers is present in the Chicago Metropolitan Area Illinois Country French has mostly gone extinct in Illinois although it is still celebrated in the French Colonial Historic District Religion Religion in Illinois 2014 100 101 Protestantism 43 Roman Catholicism 28 No religion 22 Judaism 2 Islam 1 Buddhism 1 Hinduism 1 Other religion 1 No response given Unknown 1 Christianity Roman Catholics constitute the single largest religious denomination in Illinois they are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago and account for nearly 30 of the state s population 102 However taken together as a group the various Protestant denominations comprise a greater percentage of the state s population than do Catholics In 2010 Catholics in Illinois numbered 3 648 907 The largest Protestant denominations were the United Methodist Church with 314 461 members and the Southern Baptist Convention with 283 519 Illinois has one of the largest concentrations of Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States The Bahaʼi House of Worship in Wilmette Illinois Illinois played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement with Nauvoo becoming a gathering place for Mormons in the early 1840s Nauvoo was the location of the succession crisis which led to the separation of the Mormon movement into several Latter Day Saint sects The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints the largest of the sects to emerge from the Mormon schism has more than 55 000 adherents in Illinois today 103 Other Abrahamic religious communities A significant number of adherents of other Abrahamic faiths can be found in Illinois Largely concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area followers of the Muslim Bahaʼi and Jewish religions all call the state home 104 Muslims constituted the largest non Christian group with 359 264 adherents 105 Illinois has the largest concentration of Muslims by state in the country with 2 800 Muslims per 100 000 citizens 106 The largest and oldest surviving Bahaʼi House of Worship in the world is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wilmette Illinois one of eight continental Bahaʼi House of Worship 107 It serves as a space for people of all backgrounds and religions to gather meditate reflect and pray expressing the Bahaʼi principle of the oneness of religions 108 The Chicago area has a very large Jewish community particularly in the suburbs of Skokie Buffalo Grove Highland Park and surrounding suburbs Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was the Windy City s first Jewish mayor Other religions Chicago is also home to a very large population of Hindus Sikhs Jains and Buddhists 104 EconomyMain article Economy of Illinois See also List of Illinois locations by per capita income The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at the heart of Chicago s financial center The dollar gross state product for Illinois was estimated to be US 909 billion in 2019 109 The state s 2019 per capita gross state product was estimated to be around 72 000 110 As of February 2019 the unemployment rate in Illinois reached 4 2 111 Illinois s minimum wage will rise to 15 per hour by 2025 making it one of the highest in the nation 112 Agriculture Main article Agriculture in Illinois Illinois s major agricultural outputs are corn soybeans hogs cattle dairy products and wheat In most years Illinois is either the first or second state for the highest production of soybeans with a harvest of 427 7 million bushels 11 64 million metric tons in 2008 after Iowa s production of 444 82 million bushels 12 11 million metric tons 113 Illinois ranks second in U S corn production with more than 1 5 billion bushels produced annually 114 With a production capacity of 1 5 billion gallons per year Illinois is a top producer of ethanol ranking third in the United States in 2011 115 Illinois is a leader in food manufacturing and meat processing 116 Although Chicago may no longer be Hog Butcher for the World the Chicago area remains a global center for food manufacture and meat processing 116 with many plants processing houses and distribution facilities concentrated in the area of the former Union Stock Yards 117 Illinois also produces wine and the state is home to two American viticultural areas In the area of The Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway peaches and apples are grown The German immigrants from agricultural backgrounds who settled in Illinois in the mid to late 19th century are in part responsible for the profusion of fruit orchards in that area of Illinois 118 Illinois s universities are actively researching alternative agricultural products as alternative crops Manufacturing Illinois is one of the nation s manufacturing leaders boasting annual value added productivity by manufacturing of over 107 billion in 2006 As of 2011 update Illinois is ranked as the 4th most productive manufacturing state in the country behind California Texas and Ohio 119 About three quarters of the state s manufacturers are located in the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region with 38 percent of Illinois s approximately 18 900 manufacturing plants located in Cook County As of 2006 the leading manufacturing industries in Illinois based upon value added were chemical manufacturing 18 3 billion machinery manufacturing 13 4 billion food manufacturing 12 9 billion fabricated metal products 11 5 billion transportation equipment 7 4 billion plastics and rubber products 7 0 billion and computer and electronic products 6 1 billion 120 Services By the early 2000s Illinois s economy had moved toward a dependence on high value added services such as financial trading higher education law logistics and medicine 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 Other important non manufacturing industries include publishing tourism and energy production and distribution Investments Venture capitalists funded a total of approximately 62 billion in the U S economy in 2016 Of this amount Illinois based companies received approximately 1 1 billion Similarly in FY 2016 the federal government spent 461 billion on contracts in the U S Of this amount Illinois based companies received approximately 8 7 billion 121 Energy See also List of power stations in Illinois and Solar power in Illinois Illinois is a net importer of fuels for energy despite large coal resources and some minor oil production Illinois exports electricity ranking fifth among states in electricity production and seventh in electricity consumption 122 Coal The coal industry of Illinois has its origins in the middle 19th century when entrepreneurs such as Jacob Loose discovered coal in locations such as Sangamon County Jacob Bunn contributed to the development of the Illinois coal industry and was a founder and owner of the Western Coal amp Mining Company of Illinois About 68 of Illinois has coal bearing strata of the Pennsylvanian geologic period According to the Illinois State Geological Survey 211 billion tons of bituminous coal are estimated to lie under the surface having a total heating value greater than the estimated oil deposits in the Arabian Peninsula 123 However this coal has a high sulfur content which causes acid rain unless special equipment is used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions 27 30 58 Many Illinois power plants are not equipped to burn high sulfur coal In 1999 Illinois produced 40 4 million tons of coal but only 17 million tons 42 of Illinois coal was consumed in Illinois Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states and countries In 2008 Illinois exported three million tons of coal and was projected to export nine million in 2011 as demand for energy grows in places such as China India and elsewhere in Asia and Europe 124 As of 2010 update Illinois was ranked third in recoverable coal reserves at producing mines in the nation 115 Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states while much of the coal burned for power in Illinois 21 million tons in 1998 is mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming 122 Mattoon was chosen as the site for the Department of Energy s FutureGen project a 275 megawatt experimental zero emission coal burning power plant that the DOE just gave a second round of funding In 2010 after a number of setbacks the city of Mattoon backed out of the project 125 Petroleum Illinois is a leading refiner of petroleum in the American Midwest with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 900 000 bbl d 140 000 m3 d However Illinois has very limited crude oil proved reserves that account for less than 1 of the U S total reserves Residential heating is 81 natural gas compared to less than 1 heating oil Illinois is ranked 14th in oil production among states with a daily output of approximately 28 000 bbl 4 500 m3 in 2005 126 127 Nuclear power Main article Nuclear power in the United States Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Ogle County Average annual wind power distribution for Illinois 50 m 160 ft height above ground 2009 Nuclear power arguably began in Illinois with the Chicago Pile 1 the world s first artificial self sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the world s first nuclear reactor built on the University of Chicago campus There are six operating nuclear power plants in Illinois Braidwood Byron Clinton Dresden LaSalle and Quad Cities 128 With the exception of the single unit Clinton plant each of these facilities has two reactors Three reactors have been permanently shut down and are in various stages of decommissioning Dresden 1 and Zion 1 and 2 Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation Generation from its nuclear power plants accounted for 12 percent of the nation s total 115 In 2007 48 of Illinois s electricity was generated using nuclear power 129 The Morris Operation is the only de facto high level radioactive waste storage site in the United States Wind power Main article Wind power in Illinois Illinois has seen growing interest in the use of wind power for electrical generation 130 Most of Illinois was rated in 2009 as marginal or fair for wind energy production by the U S Department of Energy with some western sections rated good and parts of the south rated poor 131 These ratings are for wind turbines with 50 m 160 ft hub heights newer wind turbines are taller enabling them to reach stronger winds farther from the ground As a result more areas of Illinois have become prospective wind farm sites As of September 2009 Illinois had 1116 06 MW of installed wind power nameplate capacity with another 741 9 MW under construction 132 Illinois ranked ninth among U S states in installed wind power capacity and sixteenth by potential capacity 132 Large wind farms in Illinois include Twin Groves Rail Splitter EcoGrove and Mendota Hills 132 As of 2007 wind energy represented only 1 7 of Illinois s energy production and it was estimated that wind power could provide 5 10 of the state s energy needs 133 134 Also the Illinois General Assembly mandated in 2007 that by 2025 25 of all electricity generated in Illinois is to come from renewable resources 135 Biofuels Illinois is ranked second in corn production among U S states and Illinois corn is used to produce 40 of the ethanol consumed in the United States 114 The Archer Daniels Midland corporation in Decatur Illinois is the world s leading producer of ethanol from corn The National Corn to Ethanol Research Center NCERC the world s only facility dedicated to researching the ways and means of converting corn maize to ethanol is located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 136 137 University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is one of the partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute EBI a 500 million biofuels research project funded by petroleum giant BP 138 139 Taxes Tax is collected by the Illinois Department of Revenue State income tax is calculated by multiplying net income by a flat rate In 1990 that rate was set at 3 but in 2010 the General Assembly voted for a temporary increase in the rate to 5 the new rate went into effect on January 1 2011 the personal income rate partially sunset on January 1 2015 to 3 75 while the corporate income tax fell to 5 25 140 141 Illinois failed to pass a budget from 2015 to 2017 after the 736 day budget impasse a budget was passed in Illinois after lawmakers overturned Governor Bruce Rauner s veto this budget raised the personal income rate to 4 95 and the corporate rate to 7 142 There are two rates for state sales tax 6 25 for general merchandise and 1 for qualifying food drugs and medical appliances 143 The property tax is a major source of tax revenue for local government taxing districts The property tax is a local not state tax imposed by local government taxing districts which include counties townships municipalities school districts and special taxation districts The property tax in Illinois is imposed only on real property 27 30 58 On May 1 2019 the Illinois Senate voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would have stricken language from the Illinois Constitution requiring a flat state income tax in a 73 44 vote If approved the amendment would have allowed the state legislature to impose a graduated income tax based on annual income The governor J B Pritzker approved the bill on May 27 2019 It was scheduled for a 2020 general election ballot vote 144 145 and required 60 percent voter approval to effectively amend the state constitution 146 The amendment was not approved by Illinoisans with 55 1 of voters voting No on approval and 44 9 voting Yes 147 As of 2017 Chicago had the highest state and local sales tax rate for a U S city with a populations above 200 000 at 10 250 148 The state of Illinois has the second highest rate of real estate tax 2 31 which is second only to New Jersey at 2 44 149 Toll roads are a de facto user tax on the citizens and visitors to the state of Illinois Illinois ranks seventh out of the 11 states with the most miles of toll roads at 282 1 miles Chicago ranks fourth in most expensive toll roads in America by the mile with the Chicago Skyway charging 51 2 cents per mile 150 Illinois also has the 11th highest gasoline tax by state at 37 5 cents per gallon 151 CultureMuseums For a more comprehensive list see List of museums in Illinois Illinois has numerous museums the greatest concentration of these are in Chicago Several museums in Chicago are ranked as some of the best in the world These include the John G Shedd Aquarium the Field Museum of Natural History the Art Institute of Chicago the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry The modern Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is the largest and most attended presidential library in the country The Illinois State Museum boasts a collection of 13 5 million objects that tell the story of Illinois life land people and art The ISM is among only 5 of the nation s museums that are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Other historical museums in the state include the Polish Museum of America in Chicago Magnolia Manor in Cairo Easley Pioneer Museum in Ipava the Elihu Benjamin Washburne Ulysses S Grant Homes both in Galena and the Chanute Air Museum located on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul The Chicago metropolitan area also hosts two zoos The Brookfield Zoo located about ten miles west of the city center in suburban Brookfield contains more than 2 300 animals and covers 216 acres 87 ha The Lincoln Park Zoo is located in Lincoln Park on Chicago s North Side approximately 3 miles 4 8 km north of the Loop The zoo accounts for more than 35 acres 14 ha of the park Illinois Museums Vandalia State House State Historic Site in Vandalia The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago Magnolia Manor is a Victorian period historic house museum in Cairo Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield The Polish Museum of America in Chicago A Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in UnionMusic Main article Music of Illinois Illinois is a leader in music education having hosted the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference since 1946 as well being home to the Illinois Music Educators Association ILMEA formerly IMEA one of the largest professional music educator s organizations in the country Each summer since 2004 Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival which presents dozens of performances throughout the region Past featured artists include the Eroica Trio and violinist David Kim Chicago in the northeast corner of the state is a major center for music 152 in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll and house music a genre of electronic dance music were developed The Great Migration of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to the city resulting in Chicago blues and Chicago style Dixieland jazz Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters Junior Wells Howlin Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons jazz greats included Nat King Cole Gene Ammons Benny Goodman and Bud Freeman Chicago is also well known for its soul music In the early 1930s Gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due to Thomas A Dorsey s contributions at Pilgrim Baptist Church In the 1980s and 1990s heavy rock punk and hip hop also became popular in Chicago Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta 153 Movies John Hughes who moved from Grosse Pointe to Northbrook based many films of his in Chicago and its suburbs Ferris Bueller s Day Off Home Alone The Breakfast Club and all his films take place in the fictional Shermer Illinois the original name of Northbrook was Shermerville and Hughes s High School Glenbrook North High School is on Shermer Road Most locations in his films include Glenbrook North the former Maine North High School the Ben Rose House in Highland Park and the famous Home Alone house in Winnetka Illinois Sports For a more comprehensive list see List of professional sports teams in Illinois Soldier Field Chicago Major league sports As one of the United States major metropolises all major sports leagues have teams headquartered in Chicago Two Major League Baseball teams are located in the state The Chicago Cubs of the National League play in the second oldest major league stadium Wrigley Field and went the longest length of time without a championship in all of major American sport from 1908 to 2016 when they won the World Series 154 155 The Chicago White Sox of the American League won the World Series in 2005 their first since 1917 They play on the city s south side at Guaranteed Rate Field The Chicago Bears football team has won nine total NFL Championships the last occurring in Super Bowl XX on January 26 1986 The Chicago Bulls of the NBA is one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world largely as a result of the efforts of Michael Jordan who led the team to six NBA championships in eight seasons in the 1990s The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL began playing in 1926 and became a member of the Original Six once the NHL dropped to that number of teams during World War II The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups most recently in 2015 Chicago Fire FC is a member of MLS and has been one of the league s most successful and best supported clubs since its founding in 1997 winning one league and four Lamar Hunt U S Open Cups in that timespan The team played in Bridgeview adjacent to Chicago from 2006 to 2019 The team now plays at Soldier Field in Chicago The Chicago Red Stars have played at the top level of U S women s soccer since their formation in 2009 except in the 2011 season The team currently plays in the National Women s Soccer League playing at SeatGeek Stadium the Bridgeview venue it formerly shared with Fire FC The Chicago Sky have played in the Women s National Basketball Association WNBA since 2006 The Sky won their first WNBA Championship in 2021 They play at Wintrust Arena in Chicago The Chicago Bandits of the NPF a women s softball league have won four league titles most recently in 2016 They play at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont Illinois in the Chicago area Minor league sports Many minor league teams also call Illinois their home They include The Bloomington Edge of the Indoor Football League The Bloomington Flex of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association The Chicago Dogs of the American Association of Professional Baseball Chicago Fire FC II of MLS Next Pro The Chicago Wolves are an AHL team playing in the suburb of Rosemont The Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in Sauget Illinois The Kane County Cougars of the American Association The Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League The Peoria Chiefs of the Midwest League The Peoria Rivermen are an SPHL team The Rockford Aviators of the Frontier League The Rockford IceHogs of the AHL The Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League The Southern Illinois Miners based out of Marion in the Frontier League The Windy City Bulls playing in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates of the NBA G League The Windy City ThunderBolts of the Frontier LeagueCollege sports The state features 13 athletic programs that compete in NCAA Division I the highest level of U S college sports The two most prominent are the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats both members of the Big Ten Conference and the only ones competing in one of the so called Power Five conferences The Fighting Illini football team has won five national championships and three Rose Bowl Games whereas the men s basketball team has won 17 conference seasons and played five Final Fours Meanwhile the Wildcats have won eight football conference championships and one Rose Bowl Game The Northern Illinois Huskies from DeKalb Illinois compete in the Mid American Conference winning four conference championships and earning a bid in the Orange Bowl along with producing Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch at quarterback The Huskies are the state s only other team competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision the top level of NCAA football Four schools have football programs that compete in the second level of Division I football the Football Championship Subdivision FCS The Illinois State Redbirds Normal adjacent to Bloomington and Southern Illinois Salukis representing Southern Illinois University s main campus in Carbondale are members of the Missouri Valley Conference MVC for non football sports and the Missouri Valley Football Conference MVFC The Western Illinois Leathernecks Macomb are full members of the Summit League which does not sponsor football and also compete in the MVFC The Eastern Illinois Panthers Charleston are members of the Ohio Valley Conference OVC The city of Chicago is home to four Division I programs that do not sponsor football The DePaul Blue Demons with main campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop are members of the Big East Conference The Loyola Ramblers with their main campus straddling the Edgewater and Rogers Park community areas on the city s far north side compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference The UIC Flames from the Near West Side next to the Loop are in the MVC The Chicago State Cougars from the city s south side are one of only two all sports independents in Division I after leaving the Western Athletic Conference in 2022 Finally two non football Division I programs are located downstate The Bradley Braves Peoria are MVC members and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars in the Metro East region across the Mississippi River from St Louis compete in the OVC Former Chicago sports franchises Folded teams The city was formerly home to several other teams that either failed to survive or belonged to leagues that folded The Chicago Blitz United States Football League 1983 1984 The Chicago Sting North American Soccer League 1975 1984 and Major Indoor Soccer League The Chicago Cougars World Hockey Association 1972 1975 The Chicago Rockers Continental Basketball Association The Chicago Skyliners American Basketball Association 2000 01 The Chicago Bruisers Arena Football League 1987 1989 The Chicago Power National Professional Soccer League 1984 2001 The Chicago Blaze National Women s Basketball League The Chicago Machine Major League Lacrosse The Chicago Whales of the Federal Baseball League a rival league to Major League Baseball from 1914 to 1916 The Chicago American Giants of the Negro baseball league 1910 1952 The Chicago Bruins of the National Basketball League 1939 1942 The Chicago Studebaker Flyers of the NBL 1942 43 The Chicago American Gears of the NBL 1944 1947 The Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America 1946 1950 The Chicago Majors of the American Basketball League 1961 1963 The Chicago Express of the ECHL The Chicago Enforcers of the XFL pro football league The Chicago Fire World Football League 1974 The Chicago Winds World Football League 1975 The Chicago Hustle Women s Professional Basketball League 1978 1981 The Chicago Mustangs North American Soccer League 1966 1967 The Chicago Rush Arena Football League 2001 2013 The Chicago Storm American Professional Slo Pitch League APSPL 1977 1978 The Chicago Nationwide Advertising North American Softball League NASL 1980Relocated teams The NFL s Arizona Cardinals who currently play in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale Arizona played in Chicago as the Chicago Cardinals until moving to St Louis Missouri after the 1959 season An NBA expansion team known as the Chicago Packers in 1961 1962 and as the Chicago Zephyrs the following year moved to Baltimore after the 1962 1963 season The franchise is now known as the Washington Wizards Professional sports teams outside Chicago The Peoria Chiefs are a High A minor league baseball team affiliated with the St Louis Cardinals The Schaumburg Boomers Southern Illinois Miners Gateway Grizzlies Joliet Slammers and Windy City ThunderBolts all belong to the independent Frontier League Additionally the Kane County Cougars play in the American Association and the Lake County Fielders were members of the former North American League In addition to the Chicago Wolves the AHL also has the Rockford IceHogs serving as the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks The second incarnation of the Peoria Rivermen plays in the SPHL Motor racing Motor racing oval tracks at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet the Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero and the Gateway International Raceway in Madison near St Louis have hosted NASCAR CART and IRL races whereas the Sports Car Club of America among other national and regional road racing clubs have visited the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet the Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit and the former Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpentersville Illinois also has several short tracks and dragstrips The dragstrip at Gateway International Raceway and the Route 66 Raceway which sits on the same property as the Chicagoland Speedway both host NHRA drag races Golf Illinois features several golf courses such as Olympia Fields Medinah Midlothian Cog Hill and Conway Farms which have often hosted the BMW Championship Western Open and Women s Western Open Also the state has hosted 13 editions of the U S Open latest at Olympia Fields in 2003 six editions of the PGA Championship latest at Medinah in 2006 three editions of the U S Women s Open latest at The Merit Club the 2009 Solheim Cup at Rich Harvest Farms and the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah The John Deere Classic is a regular PGA Tour event played in the Quad Cities since 1971 whereas the Encompass Championship is a Champions Tour event since 2013 Previously the LPGA State Farm Classic was an LPGA Tour event from 1976 to 2011 Parks and recreationFor a more comprehensive list see List of protected areas of Illinois The Illinois state parks system began in 1908 with what is now Fort Massac State Park becoming the first park in a system encompassing more than 60 parks and about the same number of recreational and wildlife areas Areas under the protection of the National Park Service include the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor near Lockport 156 the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail the American Discovery Trail 157 and the Pullman National Monument The federal government also manages the Shawnee National Forest and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Law and politicsMain articles Law of Illinois and Politics of Illinois The Illinois State Capitol in Springfield Illinois House of Representatives In a 2020 study Illinois was ranked as the 4th easiest state for citizens to vote in 158 State government Main article Government of Illinois The government of Illinois under the Constitution of Illinois has three branches of government executive legislative and judicial The executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices with the governor as chief executive Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and lower courts The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature composed of the 118 member Illinois House of Representatives and the 59 member Illinois Senate The members of the General Assembly are elected at the beginning of each even numbered year The Illinois Compiled Statutes ILCS are the codified statutes of a general and permanent nature 159 160 The executive branch is composed of six elected officers and their offices as well as numerous other departments 161 The six elected officers are 161 Governor Lieutenant Governor Attorney General Secretary of State Comptroller and Treasurer The government of Illinois has numerous departments agencies boards and commissions but the so called code departments provide most of the state s services 161 162 The Judiciary of Illinois is the unified court system of Illinois It consists of the Supreme Court Appellate Court and Circuit Courts The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties townships precincts cities towns villages and special purpose districts 163 The basic subdivision of Illinois are the 102 counties 164 Eighty five of the 102 counties are in turn divided into townships and precincts 164 165 Municipal governments are the cities villages and incorporated towns 164 Some localities possess home rule which allows them to govern themselves to a certain extent 166 Party balance Illinois is a Democratic stronghold 167 Historically Illinois was a political swing state with near parity existing between the Republican and the Democratic parties However in recent elections the Democratic Party has gained ground and Illinois has come to be seen as a solid blue state in presidential campaigns 168 169 Votes from Chicago and most of Cook County have long been strongly Democratic However the collar counties the suburbs surrounding Chicago s Cook County Illinois can be seen as moderate voting districts 170 171 College towns like Carbondale Champaign and Normal also lean Democratic Governor J B Pritzker D Republicans continue to prevail in the rural areas of northern and central Illinois as well as southern Illinois outside of East St Louis From 1920 until 1972 Illinois was carried by the victor of each of these 14 presidential elections 172 In fact the state was long seen as a national bellwether 173 supporting the winner in every election in the 20th century except for 1916 and 1976 By contrast Illinois has trended more toward the Democratic party and has voted for their presidential candidates in the last six elections in 2000 George W Bush became the first Republican to win the presidency without carrying either Illinois or Vermont Local politician and Chicago resident Barack Obama easily won the state s 21 electoral votes in 2008 with 61 9 of the vote In 2010 incumbent governor Pat Quinn was re elected with 47 of the vote while Republican Mark Kirk was elected to the Senate with 48 of the vote In 2012 President Obama easily carried Illinois again with 58 to Republican candidate Mitt Romney s 41 In 2014 Republican Bruce Rauner defeated Governor Quinn 50 to 46 to become Illinois s first Republican governor in 12 years after being sworn in on January 12 2015 while Democratic senator Dick Durbin was re elected with 53 of the vote In 2016 Hillary Clinton carried Illinois with 55 of the vote and Tammy Duckworth defeated incumbent Mark Kirk 54 to 40 George W Bush and Donald Trump are the only Republican presidential candidates to win without carrying either Illinois or Vermont In 2018 Democrat JB Pritzker defeated the incumbent Bruce Rauner for the governorship with 54 of the vote History of corruption Main article Political corruption in Illinois Politics in the state have been infamous for highly visible corruption cases as well as for crusading reformers such as governors Adlai Stevenson and James R Thompson In 2006 former governor George Ryan was convicted of racketeering and bribery leading to a six and a half year prison sentence In 2008 then Governor Rod Blagojevich was served with a criminal complaint on corruption charges stemming from allegations that he conspired to sell the vacated Senate seat left by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder Subsequently on December 7 2011 Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for those charges as well as perjury while testifying during the case totaling 18 convictions Blagojevich was impeached and convicted by the legislature resulting in his removal from office In the late 20th century Congressman Dan Rostenkowski was imprisoned for mail fraud former governor and federal judge Otto Kerner Jr was imprisoned for bribery Secretary of State Paul Powell was investigated and found to have gained great wealth through bribes and State Auditor of Public Accounts Comptroller Orville Hodge was imprisoned for embezzlement In 1912 William Lorimer the GOP boss of Chicago was expelled from the U S Senate for bribery and in 1921 Governor Len Small was found to have defrauded the state of a million dollars 30 58 174 U S presidential elections Main article United States presidential elections in Illinois Illinois has shown a strong presence in presidential elections Three presidents have claimed Illinois as their political base when running for president Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S Grant and most recently Barack Obama Lincoln was born in Kentucky but he moved to Illinois at age 21 He served in the General Assembly and represented the 7th congressional district in the U S House of Representatives before his election to the presidency in 1860 Ulysses S Grant was born in Ohio and had a military career that precluded settling down but on the eve of the Civil War and approaching middle age he moved to Illinois and thus utilized the state as his home and political base when running for president Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and made Illinois his home after graduating from law school and later represented Illinois in the U S Senate He then became president in 2008 running as a candidate from his Illinois base Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois in the city of Tampico raised in Dixon Illinois and educated at Eureka College outside Peoria Reagan later moved to California during his young adulthood He then became an actor and later became California s Governor before being elected president Hillary Clinton was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and became the first woman to represent a major political party in the general election of the U S presidency Clinton ran from a platform based in New York State African American U S senators Eleven African Americans have served as members of the United States Senate Of which three have represented Illinois the most of any single state Carol Moseley Braun 175 Barack Obama 176 and Roland Burris who was appointed to replace Obama after his election to the presidency Moseley Braun was the first African American woman to become a U S Senator Political families Three families from Illinois have played particularly prominent roles in the Democratic Party gaining both statewide and national fame Stevenson The Stevenson family initially rooted in central Illinois and later based in the Chicago metropolitan area has provided four generations of Illinois officeholders Adlai Stevenson I 1835 1914 was a Vice President of the United States as well as a Congressman Lewis Stevenson 1868 1929 son of Adlai served as Illinois Secretary of State Adlai Stevenson II 1900 1965 son of Lewis served as Governor of Illinois and as the U S Ambassador to the United Nations he was also the Democratic party s presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956 losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson III 1930 2021 son of Adlai II served ten years as a United States Senator Daley The Daley family s powerbase was in Chicago Richard J Daley 1902 1976 served as Mayor of Chicago from 1955 to his death Richard M Daley 1942 son of Richard J was Chicago s longest serving mayor in office from 1989 to 2011 William M Daley 1948 another son of Richard J is a former White House Chief of Staff and has served in a variety of appointed positions Pritzker The Pritzker family is based in Chicago and have played important roles in both the private and the public sectors Jay Pritzker 1922 1999 co founder of Hyatt Hotel based in Chicago Penny Pritzker born 1959 38th United States Secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama J B Pritzker born 1965 current and 43rd governor of Illinois and co founder of the Pritzker Group EducationIllinois State Board of education Main article Illinois State Board of Education The Illinois State Board of Education ISBE is autonomous of the governor and the state legislature and administers public education in the state Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual public schools but the ISBE audits performance of public schools with the Illinois School Report Card The ISBE also makes recommendations to state leaders concerning education spending and policies Primary and secondary schools See also List of school districts in Illinois and List of high schools in Illinois Education is compulsory for ages 7 17 in Illinois Schools are commonly but not exclusively divided into three tiers of primary and secondary education elementary school middle school or junior high school and high school District territories are often complex in structure Many areas in the state are actually located in two school districts one for high school the other for elementary and middle schools And such districts do not necessarily share boundaries A given high school may have several elementary districts that feed into it yet some of those feeder districts may themselves feed into multiple high school districts Colleges and universities For a more comprehensive list see List of colleges and universities in Illinois University of Illinois University of Chicago Using the criterion established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching there are eleven National Universities in the state The University of Chicago is continuously ranked as one of the world s top ten universities on various independent university rankings and its Booth School of Business along with Northwestern s Kellogg School of Management consistently rank within the top five graduate business schools in the country and top ten globally The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is often ranked among the best engineering schools in the world and in United States As of 19 August 2010 update six of these rank in the first tier among the top 500 National Universities in the nation as determined by the U S News amp World Report rankings the University of Chicago Northwestern University the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Loyola University Chicago the Illinois Institute of Technology DePaul University University of Illinois Chicago Illinois State University Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Northern Illinois University 177 Illinois also has more than twenty additional accredited four year universities both public and private and dozens of small liberal arts colleges across the state Additionally Illinois supports 49 public community colleges in the Illinois Community College System School financing Schools in Illinois are funded primarily by property taxes based on state assessment of property values rather than direct state contributions Scholar Tracy Steffes has described Illinois public education as historically inequitable a system where one of the wealthiest of states is the stingiest in its support for education There have been several attempts to reform school funding in Illinois The most notable attempt came in 1973 with the adoption of the Illinois Resource Equalizer Formula a measure through which it was hoped funding could be collected and distributed to Illinois schools more equitably However opposition from affluent Illinois communities who objected to having to pay for the less well off school districts many of them Black majority communities produced by redlining white flight and other soft segregation methods resulted in the formula s abolition in the late 1980s 178 InfrastructureTransportation University of Illinois Willard Airport See also List of airports in Illinois List of Illinois Routes List of Illinois railroads and Category Illinois waterways Because of its central location and its proximity to the Rust Belt and Grain Belt Illinois is a national crossroads for air auto rail and truck traffic Airports Inside O Hare International Airport From 1962 until 1998 Chicago s O Hare International Airport ORD was the busiest airport in the world measured both in terms of total flights and passengers While it was surpassed by Atlanta s Hartsfield in 1998 as Chicago splits its air traffic between O Hare and Midway airports while Atlanta uses only one airport with 59 3 million domestic passengers annually along with 11 4 million international passengers in 2008 179 O Hare consistently remains one of the two or three busiest airports globally and in some years still ranks number one in total flights It is a major hub for both United Airlines and American Airlines and a major airport expansion project is currently underway Midway Airport MDW which had been the busiest airport in the world at one point until it was supplanted by O Hare as the busiest airport in 1962 is now the secondary airport in the Chicago metropolitan area and still ranks as one of the nation s busiest airports Midway is a major hub for Southwest Airlines and services many other carriers as well Midway served 17 3 million domestic and international passengers in 2008 180 Rail Illinois major rail network Illinois has an extensive passenger and freight rail transportation network Chicago is a national Amtrak hub and in state passengers are served by Amtrak s Illinois Service featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Saluki the Chicago to Quincy Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr and the Chicago to St Louis Lincoln Service Currently there is trackwork on the Chicago St Louis line to bring the maximum speed up to 110 mph 180 km h which would reduce the trip time by an hour and a half Nearly every North American railway meets at Chicago making it the largest and most active rail hub in the country Extensive commuter rail is provided in the city proper and some immediate suburbs by the Chicago Transit Authority s L system One of the largest suburban commuter rail system in the United States operated by Metra uses existing rail lines to provide direct commuter rail access for hundreds of suburbs to the city and beyond In addition to the state s rail lines the Mississippi River and Illinois River provide major transportation routes for the state s agricultural interests Lake Michigan gives Illinois access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Interstate highway system Main article List of Interstate Highways in Illinois The Interstate Highways in Illinois are all segments of the Interstate Highway System that are owned and maintained by the state 181 Illinois has the distinction of having the most primary two digit interstates pass through it among all the 50 states with 13 Illinois also ranks third among the fifty states with the most interstate mileage coming in after California and Texas which are much bigger states in area 182 Major U S Interstate highways crossing the state include Interstate 24 I 24 I 39 I 41 I 55 I 57 I 64 I 70 I 72 I 74 I 80 I 88 I 90 and I 94 U S highway system Main article List of U S Highways in Illinois The Illinois Department of Transportation IDOT is responsible for maintaining the U S Highways in Illinois The system in Illinois consists of 21 primary highways Among the U S highways that pass through the state the primary ones are US 6 US 12 US 14 US 20 US 24 US 30 US 34 US 36 US 40 US 41 US 45 US 50 US 51 US 52 US 54 US 60 US 62 and US 67 Gallery Standard license plate introduced in 2017 Standard license plate 2001 to 2016 Illinois license plate design used throughout the 1980s and 1990s displaying the Land of Lincoln slogan that has been featured on the state s plates since 1954See also Illinois portal United States portalIndex of Illinois related articles List of people from Illinois Outline of IllinoisNotes Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry References Charles NGS Data Sheet National Geodetic Survey National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration United States Department of Commerce Retrieved October 20 2011 a b 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so large covering three to five square miles that archaeologists have yet to probe many portions of it Its centerpiece was an open fifty acre Grand Plaza surrounded by packed clay pyramids The size of thirty five football fields the Grand Plaza was at the time the biggest public space ever conceived and executed north of Mexico a flat public square 1 600 plus feet in length and 900 plus feet in width Skele Mike 1988 The Great Knob Studies in Illinois Archaeology ISBN 978 0 942579 03 1 Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved November 12 2015 Snow Dean 2010 Archaeology of Native North Americas Upper Saddle River NJ Prentice Hall pp 201 203 Nash Gary B Red White and Black The Peoples of Early North America Los Angeles 2015 Chapter 1 p 6 Austin Alchon Suzanne 2003 A pest in the land new world epidemics in a global perspective University of New Mexico Press p 59 ISBN 978 0 8263 2871 7 Archived from the original on August 3 2020 Retrieved June 16 2015 E Hoxie Encyclopedia 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Resource Equalizer Formula History of Education Quarterly 60 1 24 57 doi 10 1017 heq 2020 7 S2CID 216496825 O Hare International Airport Activity Statistics PDF City of Chicago FlyChicago com March 27 2009 Archived from the original PDF on January 1 2010 Retrieved April 10 2009 Midway Airport Activity Statistics PDF FlyChicago com City of Chicago January 30 2009 Archived from the original PDF on January 1 2010 Retrieved April 10 2009 Interstate Frequently Asked Questions 50th Anniversary Interstate System Highway History Federal Highway Administration www fhwa dot gov Archived from the original on February 20 2021 Retrieved May 3 2019 Interstates by State Interstate Guide February 2 2016 Archived from the original on March 1 2016 Retrieved February 27 2016 Further readingBridges Roger D Davis Rodney O 1984 Illinois its history amp legacy St Louis River City Publishers ISBN 978 0 933150 86 7 OCLC 11814096 Cole Arthur Charles 1987 1919 The era of the Civil War 1848 1870 Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 01339 3 OCLC 14130434 Davis James E 1998 Frontier Illinois Bloomington Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 33423 7 OCLC 39182546 Grossman James R Keating Ann Durkin Reiff Janice L 2005 2004 Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago Online ed Chicago Chicago Historical Society Newberry Library ISBN 978 0 226 31015 2 OCLC 60342627 Archived from the original on June 17 2014 Retrieved January 28 2009 Hallwas John E ed 1986 Illinois literature the nineteenth century Macomb Illinois Heritage Press OCLC 14228886 Howard Robert P 1972 Illinois a history of the Prairie State Grand Rapids W B Eerdmans Pub Co ISBN 978 0 8028 7025 4 OCLC 495362 Jensen Richard E 2001 Illinois a history Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 07021 1 OCLC 46769728 Keiser John H 1977 Building for the centuries Illinois 1865 to 1898 Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 00617 3 OCLC 2798051 Kilduff Dorrell Pygman C H 1962 Illinois History government geography Chicago Follett OCLC 5223888 Kleppner Paul 1988 Political atlas of Illinois DeKalb Northern Illinois University Press ISBN 978 0 87580 136 0 OCLC 16755435 Meyer Douglas K 2000 Making the heartland quilt a geographical history of settlement and migration in early nineteenth century Illinois Carbondale Southern Illinois University Press ISBN 978 0 585 37905 0 OCLC 48139026 Archived from the original on May 25 2012 Retrieved September 1 2017 Nowlan James D Gove Samuel K Winkel Richard J 2010 Illinois Politics A Citizen s Guide Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 07702 9 Sutton Robert P 1976 The Prairie State a documentary history of Illinois Grand Rapids Eerdmans ISBN 978 0 8028 1651 1 OCLC 2603998 Walton Clyde C 1970 An Illinois reader DeKalb Northern Illinois University Press ISBN 978 0 87580 014 1 OCLC 89905 Works Progress Administration 1983 1939 The WPA guide to Illinois the Federal Writers Project guide to 1930s Illinois New York Pantheon Books ISBN 978 0 394 72195 8 OCLC 239788752 External linksIllinois at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Travel information from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Official website Illinois State Resource Guide from the Library of Congress Geographic data related to Illinois at OpenStreetMap Illinois Office of Tourism Illinois State Energy Profile Overview U S Energy Information Administration EIA State Fact Sheets Illinois USDA s Economic Research Service USGS Central Midwest Water Science CenterPreceded byMississippi List of U S states by date of admission to the UnionAdmitted on December 3 1818 21st Succeeded byAlabama Coordinates 40 N 89 W 40 N 89 W 40 89 State of Illinois Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Illinois amp oldid 1133016493, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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