Chicago metropolitan area

"Chicagoland" redirects here. For other uses, see Chicagoland (disambiguation).
Chicago Metropolitan Area
Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI CSA
Metropolitan region

Chicago

Chicago
Country  United States
State(s)
Principal cities
Area
  Metro 10,856 sq mi (28,120 km2)
Highest elevation[1] 673 ft (205 m)
Lowest elevation[1] 579 ft (176 m)
Population (2011)
  Metropolitan region 9,729,825
  Density 1,318/sq mi (509/km2)
  Ranked 3rd in the US
Time zone CST (UTC-6)
  Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
Area codes 219, 224/847, 262, 312/872, 331/630, 574, 708, 773/872 and 779/815

The Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland, is the metropolitan area associated with the city of Chicago, Illinois, and its suburbs. It is the area that is closely linked to the city through geographic, social, economic, and cultural ties.

There are several definitions of the area, including the area defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and the area under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) (a metropolitan planning organization). The population of the Chicago CSA (Combined Statistical Area) is over 9.9 million people.[2]

Definitions

Metropolitan statistical area

The Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was originally designated by the United States Census Bureau in 1950. It consisted of the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will, along with Lake County in Indiana. As surrounding counties saw an increase in their population densities and the number of their residents employed within Cook County, they met Census criteria to be added to the MSA. The Chicago MSA, now defined as the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the third largest MSA by population in the United States with a population of 9,554,598 (2014 estimate).[3]

The Chicago MSA is further subdivided by state boundaries into the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL Metropolitan Division, corresponding roughly to the CMAP region; the Gary, IN Metropolitan Division consisting of the Indiana counties of Lake and Porter, as well as two surrounding counties; and the Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Metropolitan Division.

A breakdown of the 2009 estimated populations of the three Metropolitan Divisions of the MSA are as follows:[4]

Combined Statistical Area

The OMB also defines a slightly larger region as a Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Combined Statistical Area combines the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Michigan City (in Indiana), and Kankakee (in Illinois). This area represents the extent of the labor market pool for the entire region. The CSA has a population of 9,928,312 (2014 estimate).[2]

United Nations' Chicago urban agglomeration

The Chicago urban agglomeration, according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report (2011 revision), lists a population of 9,545,000.[5] The term “urban agglomeration” refers to the population contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels. It usually incorporates the population in a city plus that in the surrounding area.

Chicagoland

Chicagoland by county and state.[6]
A map of Chicagoland in relation to the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

Chicagoland is an informal name for the Chicago metropolitan area. The term Chicagoland has no official definition, and the region is often considered to include areas beyond the corresponding MSA, as well as portions of the greater CSA.

Colonel Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, usually gets credit for placing the term in common use.[7][8] McCormick's conception of Chicagoland stretched all the way to nearby parts of four states (Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa).[7] The first usage was in the Tribune's July 27, 1926 front page headline, "Chicagoland's Shrines: A Tour of Discoveries", for an article by reporter James O'Donnell Bennett.[9] He stated that Chicagoland comprised everything in a 200-mile (320 km) radius in every direction and reported on many different places in the area. The Tribune was the dominant newspaper in a vast area stretching to the west of the city, and that hinterland was closely tied to the metropolis by rail lines and commercial links.[10]

Today, the Chicago Tribune's usage includes the city of Chicago, the rest of Cook County, eight nearby Illinois counties (Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Will, and Kankakee), and the two Indiana counties of Lake and Porter.[11] Illinois Department of Tourism literature uses Chicagoland for suburbs in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, and Will counties,[12] treating the city separately. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce defines it as all of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties.[13]

Differing viewpoints exist, of course. For example, many residents who live in some of the more distant satellite counties nonetheless refer to themselves as being "from Chicago" or "Chicagoans". Until recently, DeKalb County was not considered part of the region proper, but as the highly developed area has continued to expand, it is now commonly defined as the "far suburbs" of the city.

In addition, company marketing programs such as Construction Data Company's[14] "Chicago and Vicinity" region and the Chicago Automobile Trade Association's "Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana" advertising campaign are directed at the MSA itself, as well as LaSalle, Winnebago (Rockford), Boone, and Ogle counties in Illinois, in addition to Jasper, Newton, and La Porte counties in Indiana and Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties in Wisconsin, and even as far northeast as Berrien County, Michigan. The region is part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis, containing an estimated 54 million people.

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is an Illinois state agency responsible for transportation infrastructure, land use, and long term economic development planning for the areas under its jurisdiction within Illinois.[15] The planning area has a population of over 8 million, which includes the following locations in Illinois:[16]

The Chicago skyline
The Chicago skyline

Geography and environment

Further information: Geography of Chicago

The city of Chicago lies in the Chicago Plain, a flat and broad area characterized by little topographical relief. The few low hills are sand ridges. North of the Chicago Plain, steep bluffs and ravines run alongside Lake Michigan.

Along the southern shore of the Chicago Plain, sand dunes run alongside the lake. The tallest dunes reach up to near 200 feet (61 m) and are found in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Surrounding the low plain are bands of moraines in the south and west suburbs. These areas are higher and hillier than the Chicago Plain. A continental divide, separating the Mississippi River watershed from that of the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, runs through the Chicago area.

A 2012 survey of the urban trees and forests in the seven county Illinois section of the Chicago area found that 21% of the land is covered by the tree and shrub canopy, made up of about 157,142,000 trees. The five most common tree species are buckthorn, green ash, boxelder, black cherry, and American elm. These resources perform important functions in carbon storage, water recycling, and energy saving.[17][18]

Demographics

Airborne view of the dense southern part of Chicago, running alongside Lake Michigan. Downtown Chicago is at the far left by the lake in the photo.

As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area had a population of 9,729,825. The population density was 1,318 per square mile. The racial makeup was 52.8% Non-Latino White, 22.1% were Latino, 16.7% were Non-Latino African Americans, and 6.4% were Asian. Other ethnic groups such as Native Americans and Pacific Islanders made up just 2.0% of the population. [19] The suburbs, surrounded by easily annexed flat ground, have been expanding at a tremendous rate since the early 1960s. Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, and Naperville are noteworthy for being four of the few boomburbs outside the Sun Belt, West Coast and Mountain States regions, and exurban Kendall County ranked as the fastest-growing county (among counties with a population greater than 10,000) in the United States between the years 2000 and 2007.[20]

Settlement patterns in the Chicago metropolitan area tend to follow those in the city proper: the northern suburbs along the shore of Lake Michigan are comparatively affluent, while the southern suburbs (sometimes known as Chicago Southland) are less so, with lower median incomes and a lower cost of living. However, there is a major exception to this. While Chicago's West Side is the poorest section of the city, the western and northwestern suburbs contain many affluent areas. According to the 2000 Census, DuPage County had the highest median household income of any county in the Midwestern United States.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, poverty rates of the largest counties from least poverty to most are as follows: McHenry 3.70%, Dupage 5.9%, Will 6.7%, Lake 6.9%, Kane 7.4%, Cook 14.5%.

In an in-depth historical analysis, Keating (2004, 2005) examined the origins of 233 settlements that by 1900 had become suburbs or city neighborhoods of the Chicago metropolitan area. The settlements began as farm centers (41%), industrial towns (30%), residential railroad suburbs (15%), and recreational/institutional centers (13%). Although relations between the different settlement types were at times contentious, there also was cooperation in such undertakings as the construction of high schools.

Population

As the Chicago metropolitan area has grown, more counties have been partly or totally assimilated with the taking of each decennial census.

Census Area 2010 Census 2000 Census 1990 Census 1980 Census 1970 Census 1960 Census 1950 Census
Chicago- Naperville- Joliet, IL-IN-WI MSA 9,461,105 9,098,316 8,065,633 7,869,542 7,612,314 6,794,461 5,495,364
Cook County, Illinois MSA 5,194,675 5,376,741 5,105,067 5,253,655 5,492,369 5,129,725 4,508,792
DeKalb County, Illinois MSA 105,160 88,969 77,932 74,624 71,654 51,714 40,781
DuPage County, Illinois MSA 916,924 904,161 781,666 658,835 491,882 313,459 154,599
Grundy County, Illinois MSA 50,063 37,535 32,337 30,582 26,535 22,350 19,217
Kane County, Illinois MSA 515,269 404,119 317,471 278,405 251,005 208,246 150,388
Kendall County, Illinois MSA 114,736 54,544 39,413 37,202 26,374 17,540 12,115
McHenry County, Illinois MSA 308,760 260,077 183,241 147,897 111,555 84,210 50,656
Will County, Illinois MSA 677,560 502,266 357,313 324,460 249,498 191,617 134,336
Jasper County, Indiana MSA 33,478 30,043 24,960 26,138 20,429 18,842 17,031
Lake County, Indiana MSA 496,005 484,564 475,594 522,965 546,253 513,269 368,152
Newton County, Indiana MSA 14,244 14,566 13,551 14,844 11,606 11,502 11,006
Porter County, Indiana MSA 164,343 146,798 128,932 119,816 87,114 60,279 40,076
Lake County, Illinois MSA 703,462 644,356 516,418 440,372 382,638 293,656 179,097
Kenosha County, Wisconsin MSA 166,426 149,577 128,181 123,137 117,917 100,615 75,238
Kankakee County, Illinois CSA 113,449 103,833 96,255 102,926 97,250 92,063 73,524
LaPorte County, Indiana CSA 111,467 110,106 107,066 108,632 105,342 95,111 76,808
Chicago- Naperville- Joliet, IL-IN-WI CSA 9,686,021 9,312,255 8,385,397 8,264,490 8,089,421 7,204,198 5,911,816

Counties highlighted in gray were not included in the MSA for that census. The CSA totals in blue are the totals of all the counties listed above, regardless of whether they were included in the Chicago Combined Statistical Area at the time.[21]

Principal municipalities

Over 1,000,000 population

Over 100,000 population

Over 50,000 population

View of Chicago greater metropolitan region and the dense downtown area from the Willis Tower
View of Chicago greater metropolitan region and the dense downtown area from the Willis Tower

Urban areas within the Chicago CSA

Within the boundary of the 16-county Chicago Consolidated Statistical Area lies the Chicago urban area, as well as 27 smaller urban areas and clusters. Smallest gap indicates the shortest distance between the given urban area or cluster and the Chicago urban area.[22]

The extent of the 16-county Chicago CSA (in black) and the 16 counties that share a border with the Chicago CSA (in gray), with counties divided into Minor Civil Divisions. In Illinois and Indiana, townships are intermediate between counties and municipalities (with the latter lying within townships and crossing township borders, while in Michigan and Wisconsin, townships are municipal equivalents.
Rank Urban area type Population
(2000 census)
Land area
(km²)
Smallest gap
(km)
1 Chicago-Aurora-Elgin-Joliet-Waukegan, IL-IN UA 8,307,904 5,498.1 n/a
2 Round Lake Beach-McHenry-Grayslake, IL-WI^ † UA 226,848 344.9 2
3 Kenosha, WI † UA 110,942 109.2 1
4 Michigan City-LaPorte, IN-MI^^ † UA 66,199 86.1 3
5 Kankakee-Bradley-Bourbonnais, IL UA 65,073 71.5 >10
6 DeKalb-Sycamore, IL UA 55,805 46.3 >10
7 Woodstock, IL † UC 20,219 21.1 4
8 Morris, IL UC 13,927 19.3 >10
9 Sandwich, IL^^^ UC 12,248 23.9 >10
10 Braidwood-Coal City, IL UC 11,607 19.5 >10
11 Harvard, IL UC 8,575 13.3 >10
12 Lakes of the Four Seasons, IN † UC 8,450 12.5 4
13 Lowell, IN UC 7,914 15.8 >10
14 Wilmington, IL UC 7,107 20.8 >10
15 Manteno, IL UC 7,106 9.4 >10
16 Marengo, IL UC 6,854 8.6 >10
17 Rensselaer, IN UC 6,096 10.9 >10
18 Plano, IL † UC 5,911 6.5 3
19 Genoa, IL UC 5,137 5.5 >10
20 Genoa City, WI-IL^^^^ † UC 5,126 12.5 >10
21 Westville, IN UC 5,077 4.4 >10
22 Hebron, IN UC 4,150 11.7 >10
23 Momence, IL UC 3,711 9.7 >10
24 Peotone, IL † UC 3,358 3.5 9
25 Wonder Lake, IL † UC 2,798 2.0 5
26 Monee, IL † UC 2,787 3.7 3
27 Union Township, Porter County, IN † UC 2,593 4.9 1
28 Hampshire, IL † UC 2,591 2.0 6

The formerly distinct urban areas of Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, and Waukegan were absorbed into the Chicago UA as of the 2000 census.

† These urban areas and urban clusters are expected to be joined to the Chicago Urban Area by the next census in 2010.

^ The Round Lake Beach-McHenry-Grayslake, IL-WI UA extends into Walworth County, WI, which lies in the Milwaukee CSA.

^^ The Michigan City-LaPorte, IN-MI UA extends into Berrien County, MI, which lies (for the moment) outside the Chicago CSA.

^^^ The Sandwich, IL UC extends into LaSalle County, IL, which lies (for the moment) outside the Chicago CSA.

^^^^ The Genoa City, WI-IL UC extends into Walworth County, WI, which lies in the Milwaukee CSA.

Economy

Westward view from the Willis Tower in Chicago
Main article: Economy of Chicago

The Chicago metropolitan area is home to the corporate headquarters of 57 Fortune 1000 companies, which includes Boeing, McDonald's, Motorola, Discover Financial Services, United Continental Holdings, Walgreens, and Aon among others, representing a diverse group of industries.[23] The area is a major global financial center, and Chicago is home to the largest futures exchange in the world, the CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). In March 2008, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced its acquisition of NYMEX Holdings Inc, the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange and Commodity Exchange. CME'S acquisition of NYMEX was completed in August 2008.

A key piece of infrastructure for several generations was the Union Stock Yards of Chicago, which from 1865 until 1971 penned and slaughtered millions of cattle and hogs into standardized cuts of beef and pork.

The Chicago area, meanwhile, began to produce significant quantities of telecommunications gear, electronics, steel, crude oil derivatives, automobiles, and industrial capital goods.

By the early 2000s, Illinois' economy had moved toward a dependence on high-value-added services, such as financial trading, higher education, logistics, and health care. In some cases, these services clustered around institutions that hearkened back to Illinois's earlier economies. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a trading exchange for global derivatives, had begun its life as an agricultural futures market.

In 2007, the area ranked first among U.S. metro areas in the number of new and expanded corporate facilities.[24] It ranked third in 2008, behind the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown and Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan areas,[25] and ranked second behind the New York metropolitan area in 2009.[26]

The Wall Street Journal summarized the Chicago area's economy in November 2006 with the comment that "Chicago has survived by repeatedly reinventing itself."[27]

Transportation

Major airports

Commercial ports

Rail and transit systems

Major highways

Interstates

Other main highways

Major corridors

In addition to the Chicago Loop, the metro area is home to a few important subregional corridors of commercial activities. Among them are:

Culture

Sports

Main article: Sports in Chicago

Listing of the professional sports teams in the Chicago metropolitan area

Major league professional teams:

Other professional teams:

The Chicagoland Speedway oval track has hosted NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar Series races. The Chicago Marathon is one of the World Marathon Majors. The Western Open and BMW Championship are PGA Tour tournaments that have been held primarily at golf courses near Chicago.

Cuisine

Further information: Chicago § Cuisine

Media

Main article: Media in Chicago

The two main newspapers are the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Local television channels include WBBM-TV 2 (CBS), WMAQ-TV 5 (NBC), WLS-TV 7 (ABC), WGN-TV 9 (CW), WTTW 11 (PBS), WCIU 26 (Ind), WFLD 32 (FOX), WCPX-TV 38 (Ion), WSNS-TV 44 (Telemundo) WPWR-TV 50 (MyNetworkTV), and WJYS-TV 62 (The Way). CLTV is a 24/7 local news provider available only to cable subscribers. Radio stations serving the area include: WBEZ, WMBI, WLS-AM, and WSCR.

Education

Elementary and secondary education within the Chicago metropolitan area is provided by dozens of different school districts, of which by far the largest is the Chicago Public Schools with 400,000 students.[28] Numerous private and religious school systems are also found in the region, as well as a growing number of charter schools. Racial inequalities in education in the region remain widespread, often breaking along district boundaries;[29] for instance, educational prospects vary widely for students in the Chicago Public Schools compared to those in some neighboring suburban schools.[30]

Historically, the Chicago metropolitan area has been at the center of a number of national educational movements, from the free-flowing Winnetka Plan to the regimented Taylorism of the Gary Plan.[31] In higher education, University of Chicago founder William Rainey Harper was a leading early advocate of the junior college movement; Joliet Junior College is the nation's oldest continuously-operating junior college today.[32] Later U of C president Robert Maynard Hutchins was central to the Great Books movement, and programs of dialogic education arising from that legacy can be found today at the U of C, at Shimer College,[33] and in the City Colleges of Chicago and Oakton Community College in the Northwest suburbs.[34]

Area codes

From 1947 until 1988, the Illinois portion of the Chicago metro area was served by a single area code, 312, which abutted the 815 area code. In 1988 the 708 area code was introduced and the 312 area code became exclusive to the city of Chicago.

It became common to call suburbanites "708'ers", in reference to their area code.

The 708 area code was partitioned in 1996 into three area codes, serving different portions of the metro area: 630, 708, and 847.

At the same time that the 708 area code was running out of phone numbers, the 312 area code in Chicago was also exhausting its supply of available numbers. As a result, the city of Chicago was divided into two area codes, 312 and 773. Rather than divide the city by a north/south area code, the central business district retained the 312 area code, while the remainder of the city took the new 773 code.

In 2002, the 847 area code was supplemented with the overlay area code 224. In February 2007, the 815 area code (serving outlying portions of the metro area) was supplemented with the overlay area code 779. In October 2007, the overlay area code 331 was implemented to supplement the 630 area with additional numbers.

Plans are in place for overlay codes in the 708, 773, and 312 regions as those area codes become exhausted in the future.

Proposed overlays

References

  1. 1 2 "Elevations of the 50 Largest Cities". U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 23 January 2016. Chicago city proper only
  2. 1 2 "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2014 - United States -- Combined Statistical Area; and for Puerto Rico 2014 Population Estimates" (CSV). United States Census Bureau, Population Division. March 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  3. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013 - United States -- MSA". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  4. "CSA-EST2009-alldata". United States Census Bureau. July 1, 2009. Archived from the original (csv) on July 8, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2011. The MSA covers 7,214 sq. mi. of land area and 2,367 sq. mi. of water area. The total area of the MSA is 9,581 sq. mi.
  5. Archived April 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. As defined by Construction Data Company.
  7. 1 2 Fuller, Jack (2005). "Chicagoland". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  8. "The Press: The Colonel's Century". TIME. June 9, 1947. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
  9. O'Donnell Bennett, James (July 27, 1926). "Chicagoland's Shrines: A Tour of Discoveries". Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963). Retrieved 2010-02-20.
  10. Cronon (1992); Keating (2005); Keating (2004)
  11. "Classifieds map of Chicagoland". Chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  12. Archived November 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. "About Chicagoland". Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  14. "Bidtool Coverage area: Chicago, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Kentucky project leads". Bidtool.net. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  15. "Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning". Chicagoareaplanning.org. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  16. "About - CMAP". Cmap.illinois.gov. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  17. "Urban trees and forests of the Chicago region". Nrs.fs.fed.us. 2013-09-17. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  18. "Regional Tree Census | The Morton Arboretum". Mortonarb.org. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  19. "Census Findings of Chicago Metropolitan Area" (PDF). The Chicago Community Trust. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  20. "Kendall County is fastest growing in the nation". Daily Herald. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  21. "Historical Metropolitan Area Definitions". Census.gov. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  22. "Alphabetically sorted list of UAs". U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  23. "Fortune 500 2008: States - Illinois". CNN.
  24. RON STARNER. "TOP METROS OF 2007 - Site Selection magazine, March 2008". Siteselection.com. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  25. RON STARNER (March 9, 2009). "TOP METROS OF 2008 - Site Selection magazine, March 2009". Siteselection.com. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  26. "TOP METROS OF 2009 - Site Selection Magazine, March 2010". Siteselection.com. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  27. Brat, Ilan (November 8, 2006). "Tale of a Warehouse Shows How Chicago Weathers a Decline". The Wall Street Journal. p. A1. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  28. "About CPS". Chicago Public Schools. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  29. Moore, Natalie (November 12, 2014). "Why so few white kids land in CPS — and why it matters". WBEZ. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  30. Bogira, Steve (October 17, 2012). "Two students, two high schools, two divergent paths to college". Chicago Reader.
  31. Thiede, Robert. "Gary Plan". Britannica.com. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  32. Sydow, Debbie; Alfred, Richard (2012). Re-visioning Community Colleges: Positioning for Innovation. p. 13. ISBN 1442214880.
  33. Ronson, Jon (December 6, 2014). "Shimer College: The Worst School in America?". The Guardian.
  34. "Great Books program". Oakton Community College. Retrieved January 26, 2015.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chicago metropolitan area.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Chicagoland.

Coordinates: 41°54′N 87°39′W / 41.900°N 87.650°W / 41.900; -87.650

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