Chicago metropolitan area

Geography and environment

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 Indiana Dunes National Park. 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.

Demographics

Racial and ethnic composition

Race and ethnicity

As of 2022, the metropolitan area had a population of 9,442,159. The population density was 1,312.3 per square mile. The racial makeup was 50.1% Non-Hispanic White, 23.4% were Hispanic, 15.5% were Non-Hispanic African Americans, 7.2% were Asian, 0.1% were Non-Hispanic Native American, 0.4% identified as “some other race,” and 3.2% were non-Hispanic multiracial.

Ancestry

According to 2023 estimates from the American Community Survey, the largest ancestries in the Chicago metro area were Mexican (18.3%), African (17.7%), German (12.6%), Irish (9.9%), Polish (7.8%), Italian (6.2%), English (4.8%), Indian (2.7%), Puerto Rican (2.2%), Filipino (1.7%), Swedish (1.5%), and Chinese (1.5%).

Urban growth

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 2000 and 2007.

Income

Settlement patterns in the Chicago metropolitan area tend to follow those in the city proper: the northern and northwestern suburbs are generally affluent and upper-middle class, while the southern suburbs (sometimes known as Chicago Southland) have somewhat lower median incomes and a cost of living, with the exception being the southwest suburbs which contain many upper-middle class areas. Another exception to this is the West Side, which has a somewhat lower median income, but the western suburbs contain many affluent and upper-middle class areas. According to the 2000 Census, DuPage County as a whole had the highest median household income of any county in the Midwestern United States, although there are individual cities and towns in other surrounding counties in the metro that have even higher median incomes.

According to 2022 estimates from the U.S. Census, poverty rates of the largest counties from least poverty to most are as follows: McHenry 4.0%, Dupage 6.7%, Will 6.9%, Kane 7.8%, Lake 8.0%, and Cook 13.6%. However, Cook County, which contains luxury high rises and expensive houses in sections of the city and expensive houses along the waterfront in the North Shore area, would also have the highest percentage of expensive homes in the region.

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

Population

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

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.

Principal municipalities

Over 1,000,000 population

• Chicago (2,746,388)

Over 100,000 population

• Aurora, Illinois (180,542)
• Joliet, Illinois (150,362)
• Naperville, Illinois (149,540)
• Elgin, Illinois (114,797)

Over 50,000 population

• Kenosha, Wisconsin (99,986)
• Waukegan, Illinois (89,321)
• Cicero, Illinois (85,268)
• Schaumburg, Illinois (78,723)
• Evanston, Illinois (78,110)
• Hammond, Indiana (77,879)
• Arlington Heights, Illinois (77,676)
• Bolingbrook, Illinois (73,922)
• Gary, Indiana (69,093)
• Palatine, Illinois (67,908)
• Skokie, Illinois (67,824)
• Des Plaines, Illinois (60,675)
• Orland Park, Illinois (58,703)
• Oak Lawn, Illinois (58,362)
• Berwyn, Illinois (57,250)
• Mount Prospect, Illinois (56,852)
• Tinley Park, Illinois (55,971)
• Oak Park, Illinois (54,583)
• Wheaton, Illinois (53,970)
• Downers Grove, Illinois (50,247)

Urban areas within

Within the boundary of the 16-county Chicago Combined Statistical Area lies the Chicago urban area, as well as 26 smaller urban areas. Some of the urban areas below may partially cross into other statistical areas. Only those situated primarily within the Chicago combined statistical area are listed here.

Economy

The Chicago metropolitan area is home to the corporate headquarters of 57 Fortune 1000 companies, including AbbVie Inc., Allstate, Archer Daniels Midland, Exelon, GE Healthcare, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Motorola, United Airlines, Walgreens, and more. The Chicago area also headquarters a wide variety of global financial institutions including Morningstar, Inc. and CNA Financial. Chicago is home to the largest futures exchange in the world, the 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 to form CME Group. Until 2022, the Chicago area was home to corporate headquarters of Boeing, Caterpillar, Citadel LLC, and Tyson Foods.

A key piece of infrastructure for several generations was the Union Stock Yards of Chicago, which from 1865 until 1971 penned and slaughtered millions of cattle and hogs into standardized cuts of beef and pork. This prompted poet Carl Sandburg to describe Chicago as the "Hog Butcher for the World".

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

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

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

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

Transportation

Major airports

• Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
• Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE) (located in the adjacent Milwaukee metropolitan area)
• Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) (located in the adjacent Rockford metropolitan area)
• Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY)

Ports and harbors

• North Point Marina (Winthrop Harbor)
• Port of Chicago
• Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor
• Waukegan Harbor
• Wilmette Harbor

Commercial freight

Chicago has been at the center of the United States' railroad network since the 19th century. Almost all Class I railroads serve the area, the most in North America.

The CenterPoint Intermodal Center in Elwood, near Joliet, is considered to be the largest inland port in North America.

Public Transit

The Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) coordinates and supports the operation of three transit service boards serving Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties in Illinois, with one commuter rail line also serving Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

• Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) operates the Chicago "L" rapid transit system and numerous bus routes in the City of Chicago and some surrounding suburbs.
• Pace (NITA's Suburban Bus Division) operates regular suburban fixed-route bus services, an arterial rapid transit service known as Pulse, express buses on I-55 and I-90, regional vanpool, paratransit, and demand-response services in the Chicagoland region.
• Metra (NITA's Commuter Rail Division) operates commuter rail service between Chicago and numerous suburbs:
  • 4 lines serving southern Cook County and Will County
  • 3 lines serving western Cook County, DuPage County, and Kane County
  • 2 lines serving northern Cook County and Lake County
  • 1 line serving northern Cook County, Lake County, and Kenosha County
  • 1 line serving northwestern Cook County and McHenry County

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) operates the South Shore Line, which provides commuter rail service from downtown Chicago (at Millennium Station) to Northwest Indiana. Since March 2026 it consists of two routes:

• Lakeshore Corridor to South Bend Airport via Lake (IN), Porter, LaPorte, and St. Joseph counties
• Monon Corridor to Munster/Dyer via Lake County, IN

Several other public transit systems serve counties not within the NITA region such as Kenosha Area Transit, Kenosha streetcar, DeKalb Public Transit, River Valley Metro MTD, SHOW BUS, East Chicago Transit, Gary Public Transportation Corporation, V-Line, ChicaGO Dash, and Michigan City Transit.

Passenger Rail

Chicago Union Station serves as the national and Midwest hub for Amtrak, the national passenger rail operator of the United States. The routes that serve Union Station include the Blue Water, Borealis, California Zephyr, Cardinal, City of New Orleans, Empire Builder, Floridian, Hiawatha Service, Illini/Saluki, Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg, Lake Shore Limited, Lincoln Service, Pere Marquette, Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle, and Wolverine. There are also other Amtrak stations in Chicagoland:

• Glenview, IL - Hiawatha Service, Borealis, and Empire Builder
• Naperville, IL - Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg, California Zephyr, and Southwest Chief
• LaGrange, IL - Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg
• Summit, IL - Lincoln Service
• Joliet, IL - Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle
• Homewood, IL - Illini/Saluki and City of New Orleans
• Hammond-Whiting, IN - Wolverine
• Dyer, IN - Cardinal

Major highways

Interstates

• I-41 runs concurrently with I-94 from the northern terminus of the Tri-State Tollway to Milwaukee.
• I-55 is the Adlai Stevenson Expressway.
• I-57 is unofficially the "West Leg" of the Dan Ryan Expressway.
• I-65 has no name, whether official or unofficial.
• I-80 is officially called the Borman Expressway (cosigned with I-94), Kingery Expressway (cosigned with I-94 for 3 miles), Tri-State Tollway (cosigned with I-294 for 4 miles) and is unofficially called the Moline Expressway west of I-294.
• I-88 is the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway (formerly East-West Tollway)
• I-90 is locally known as Jane Addams Tollway (formerly Northwest Tollway), John F. Kennedy Expressway (cosigned with I-94), Dan Ryan Expressway (cosigned with I-94), and Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge.
• I-94 is the Tri-State Tollway in Lake County, Edens Spur, Edens Expy, John F. Kennedy Expy (cosigned with I-90), Dan Ryan Expy (cosigned with I-90), Bishop Ford Freeway (formerly Calumet Expressway), Kingery Expy (cosigned with I-80) and Borman Expy (cosigned with I-80).
• I-190 is the John F. Kennedy Expressway spur heading into Chicago-O'Hare Int'l Airport.
• I-290 is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway.
• I-294 is the Tri-State Tollway.
• I-355 is the Veterans Memorial Tollway (formerly North-South Tollway).
• I-490 is the O'Hare West Bypass, a toll road currently under construction with a scheduled opening date of 2027.

Other main highways

• US Routes in the Illinois part of the area include: US 6, US 12, US 14, US 20, US 30, US 34, US 41, US 45, and US 52.
• Illinois Route 53, an arterial north–south state highway running through Grundy, Will, DuPage, Cook and Lake counties
• Illinois Route 137, also known as the Amstutz Expressway, in Lake County, Illinois
• Illinois Route 390, also known as the Elgin-O'Hare Tollway, in Cook and DuPage counties
• Illinois Route 394, also known as the Calumet Expressway, in Cook and Will counties
• Indiana State Road 912, also known as Cline Avenue, a freeway in Lake County, Indiana
• Historic US Route 66's eastern terminus is in Chicago.

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:

• Golden Corridor, along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90)
• Illinois Technology and Research Corridor, along the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88)
• Lakeshore Corridor, along the Edens Expressway and Tri-State Tollway (both I-94)

Politics

The Chicagoland metro has long been a Democratic stronghold due to the Democratic strength concentrated in Cook County, more specifically in the city of Chicago and its many diverse suburbs. The Collar counties that border Cook County have historically leaned towards the Republican Party, but in recent election cycles they have increasingly shifted to the left.

McHenry County is the reddest collar county, as it is the only county out of the five collar counties that has continued to routinely elect Republicans statewide, having voted for the Republican candidate for president in the last four out of five United States presidential elections. Dekalb County, which is the westernmost county in the metro, is a Democratic leaning county, especially because of the demographically diverse city of Dekalb being home to NIU. Kankakee County and Grundy County, which are located to the south and southwest of Will County respectively, are the most Republican counties included in metro, particularly due to being more exurban and rural.

Culture

Sports

Listing of the professional sports teams in the Chicago metropolitan area

Major league professional teams:

• Major League Baseball (MLB)
  • Chicago Cubs
  • Chicago White Sox
• National Football League (NFL)
  • Chicago Bears
• National Basketball Association (NBA)
  • Chicago Bulls
• National Hockey League (NHL)
  • Chicago Blackhawks
• Major League Soccer (MLS)
  • Chicago Fire FC
• Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
  • Chicago Sky
• National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
  • Chicago Stars FC

Other professional teams:

• American Association of Professional Baseball (AA)
  • Chicago Dogs
  • Kane County Cougars
  • Gary SouthShore RailCats
• American Hockey League (AHL)
  • Chicago Wolves
• NBA G League (NBAGL)
  • Windy City Bulls
• Major League Rugby (MLR)
  • Chicago Hounds

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

NCAA Division I College Sports Teams:

• Atlantic 10 Conference
  • Loyola University Chicago Ramblers
• Big East Conference
  • DePaul University Blue Demons
• Big Ten Conference
  • Northwestern University Wildcats (Evanston)
• Mid-American Conference
  • Northern Illinois University Huskies (DeKalb)
• Missouri Valley Conference
  • University of Illinois Chicago Flames
  • Valparaiso University Beacons (Valparaiso, IN)
• Northeast Conference
  • Chicago State University Cougars

Cuisine

• Chicago-style hot dog
• Chicago-style pizza
• Italian beef
• Caramel popcorn

Media

The two main newspapers are the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Local television channels broadcasting to the Chicago market include WBBM-TV 2 (CBS), WMAQ-TV 5 (NBC), WLS-TV 7 (ABC), WGN-TV 9 (CW), WTTW 11 (PBS), MeTV 23, WCIU 26 (Ind), WFLD 32 (FOX), WCPX-TV 38 (Ion), WSNS-TV 44 (Telemundo), WPWR-TV 50 (MyNetworkTV), and WJYS-TV 62 (The Way). Radio stations serving the area include: WBBM (AM), WBEZ, WGN (AM), 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. 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; for instance, educational prospects vary widely for students in the Chicago Public Schools compared to those in some neighboring suburban schools.

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

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.

• 312 Chicago - City (The Loop and central neighborhoods, e.g. the Near North Side)
• 773 Chicago - City (Everywhere else within the city limits, excluding central area)
• 872 Chicago - City (overlay for 312 & 773, effective November 7, 2009)
• 847/224 (North and Northwest Suburbs)
• 630/331 (Outer Western Suburbs)
• 708 (South and Near West Suburbs)
• 815/779 (Rockford & Joliet: Far Northwest/Southwest Suburbs)
• 219 (Northwest Indiana)
• 574 (North-central Indiana)
• 262 (Southeast Wisconsin surrounding Milwaukee County)

Proposed overlays

• 464 overlay for 708 (January 21, 2022, rollout)