Census 2000 Redistricting Data for the State of Illinois and Northeastern Illinois
Released March 14, 2001

The U.S. Census Bureau delivered to Gov. George Ryan and the leaders of the state legislature the official Census 2000 Redistricting Data File for the state of Illinois on March 14, 2001. The data are among the first to be released from the census that was conducted on April 1, 2000. The data will be used to redraw boundaries for federal, state and local legislative districts. In addition, these census counts also provide information about the size and composition of the state's population, with detailed population counts for Illinois’s counties, townships, and municipalities, by race and Hispanic origin.

Highlights from an initial look at Census 2000 data for the 6-county Northeastern Illinois region:

Population Change, 1990-2000

• Overall, the 6-county Northeastern Illinois region, consisting of Cook County and the five collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will, grew by 830,544 persons, or 11.4%.  The region's population stood at 8,091,720 on April 1, 2000 compared to 7,261,176 a decade earlier.

• In 1990, 63.5% of Illinois's residents lived in Northeastern Illinois. By Census Day 2000, 65.2% of the state’s population lived in the region.

• From 1990 to 2000, 84% of the state's increase in population occurred in Northeastern Illinois.

Hispanic Population (Note: Hispanics may be of any race)

• As anticipated, Northeastern Illinois’s Hispanic population has grown substantially, from 836,905 in 1990 to more than 1,405,116 in 2000, a jump of over 568,000, or about 68%.

• In 1990, 11.5% of Northeastern Illinois’s population claimed Hispanic origin, while 17.4% indicated that they were Hispanic on their census forms in 2000.

• The six counties in Northeastern Illinois accounted for 92% of the state’s Hispanic population and for 91% of the state’s growth in Hispanic population.

Population by Race

• A relatively small portion of Northeastern Illinois’s population, 2.3%, checked off more than one race category, a new option in 2000.

• Looking only at those who responded to the race question by selecting a single race category (97.7% of all Northeastern Illinois residents), growth rates for the categories were: White (3%), Black (9%), American Indian (53%), Asian (52%), Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (67%).

• In 1990, 65.5% of Northeastern Illinois’s population were counted as non-Hispanic white.  In 2000, non-Hispanics choosing white only as their race had fallen to 57.3% of the area's population.

• Population in the minority categories (everything except non-Hispanic white only) now represents about 43% of the region's total population compared to less than 35% in 1990.

• The more rapid growth in both the Hispanic population and the minority race categories buttresses the general observation that Northeastern Illinois is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and is, in fact, well on its way to a 50-50 population split between white non-Hispanics and those traditionally counted as minority group members.

Population by Age

• The number of children (population aged 0-17) in Northeastern Illinois increased 15.8% from 1990 to 2000.

• By Census Day 2000, there were 2.2 million children living in our six counties compared to 1.9 million a decade earlier.

• Northeastern Illinois accounted for an amazing 99.4% of the increase in the number of children statewide.  

Population by County

• Based on rate of growth, McHenry County was the fastest growing county in Northeastern Illinois, jumping 42% in population from 1990 to 2000.  McHenry's growth rate outpaced all other Illinois counties, the state as a whole, which grew 8.6% and the nation, which grew 13.2%.

• All the other collar counties--DuPage (+16%), Kane (+27%), Lake (+25%), and especially Will (+41%)-- grew rapidly from 1990 to 2000 at rates outpacing the nation as a whole.

• The high population growth rates in suburban Northeastern Illinois were consistent with growth patterns previously occurring in the region, with much of the population growth occurring away from the area's central core.

• At the same time, Cook County--the region's densely populated inner county--grew 5.3% between 1990 and 2000.  By far the most populous county in Illinois, Cook County’s count stood at 5,376,741 on Census Day 2000. It's net population change of 271,674 was greater than that for any other county in Illinois.

• Each of the six counties in Northeastern Illinois gained more population than any other Illinois county.

Population by Municipality

• In contrast to the steady decline of Chicago’s population from 1950 to 1990, the city of Chicago grew by 112,290 people during the decade of the 1990s.

• From 1980 to 1990, a total of 95 Northeastern Illinois suburbs also lost population. Since 1990, only 31 suburban communities recorded population losses. While this is partly due to a presumed pause in the decline of average household size, it does reveal a stabilization of the population for many of the older, inner ring suburban communities.

• With the notable exceptions of Chicago and Cicero (+18,180), municipalities  experiencing the largest amounts of population change are found away from the region’s inner core.  This list includes Aurora (+43,318), Naperville (+42,552), Joliet (+29,004), Palatine (+23,925), Waukegan (+18,420), Elgin (+17,473), Bartlett (+17,311) and Lake in the Hills (+17,270).

• Aurora and Naperville overtook the downstate cities of Peoria and Springfield to become the third and fourth largest communities in Illinois.

Census 2000 data for Northeastern Illinois will be available at NIPC's web site, along with
additional analysis of what the results mean for our area.