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Chicagoland is a common name for the Chicago metropolitan area in the USA. Chicagoland comprises the city of Chicago, Cook County and the nine surrounding counties in the state of Illinois, five in Indiana, and one in Wisconsin. "Chicagoland" is often used in place of "Chicago metropolitan area" by local residents, businesses, governments, and planning agencies. The term originated in the pages of the Chicago Tribune in the 1900s.

Overview

The Chicago Consolidated Statistical Area (or, in full, the Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City CSA) had a population of 9,312,554, according to the most recent census in 2000. Based upon county estimates released in March 2006 from the Census Bureau, the population by 2005 had increased to 9,661,840. The metro area is comprised of ten Illinois counties (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, Kankakee, DeKalb, Kendall, and Grundy), five Indiana counties (Lake, Porter, Jasper, Newton, and LaPorte), and one Wisconsin county (Kenosha). The Greater Chicagoland area is the third largest urban center in the United States, and 1 in every 30 Americans call it home. Chicagoland runs together with Milwaukee and Racine in Wisconsin, creating a megalopolis region, and in the coming years will probably find its urban area combining with nearby urban centers like Rockford, South Bend, and Benton Harbor.

The suburbs, surrounded by easily annexed flat ground, have been expanding at a tremendous rate since the early 1960s. Naperville is noteworthy for being one of only two boomburbs outside the Sunbelt, West Coast, and Mountain States regions (though Bolingbrook may join it in the next decade), and exurban Kendall County ranked as the third fastest-growing county in the United States with a population greater than 10,000 between 2004 and 2005.* Settlement patterns in Chicagoland tend to follow those in the city proper: the northern suburbs along the shore of Lake Michigan are comparatively affluent, while the southern suburbs are less so, with lower median incomes and a lower cost of living. There are affluent areas in the northwest and western suburbs as well, that rival the northern suburbs. The southern portion of Chicagoland is occasionally called Illiana, a contraction of Illinois and Indiana.

Origin

The publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, was an inveterate civic booster. In his view, Chicagoland was the vast region in the center of the country, with Chicago as its economic and cultural capital. In many ways, what McCormick envisioned as Chicagoland is now described by the term flyover country.

Usage

While the term Chicagoland may stand alone, it is sometime used in phrases like "the Chicagoland area," "metro Chicagoland" or even "the greater Chicagoland area." The term is often used by advertisers ("See your Chicagoland Chevy dealer") or by weathercasters ("A major snowstorm is expected in Chicagoland"). It is rarely used outside the area, as people from Chicago or the surrounding suburbs would likely name "Chicago" or their specific suburb to define their town of origin to an outsider.

List of counties

Illinois

Indiana

Wisconsin

Anchor cities

Major airports

Urban Areas & Urban Clusters within the Chicagoland 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.

Rank Urban Area or Urban Cluster 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, 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 (for the moment) outside the Chicago 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 (for the moment) outside the Chicago CSA.

Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants

Illinois

Indiana

Wisconsin

Cities with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

Illinois

Indiana

Wisconsin

Cities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

Illinois

Indiana

Wisconsin

Transportation

Major airports

Commuter rail

Major highways

Area codes

  • 312 (The Loop and central neighborhoods, e.g. the Near North Side)
  • 773 (Everywhere else in the city proper, the neighborhoods)
  • 847 (North and Northwest Suburbs)
  • 708 (Near West and South Suburbs)
  • 630 (Western Suburbs)
  • 224 (Overlay area code for 847)
  • 815 (far northwest and some south suburbs, Joliet)
  • 219 (Northwest Indiana)
  • 262 (Southeast Wisconsin)

See also

External links

Metropolitan areas of the United States | Chicago, Illinois | Chicago metropolitan area

Metropolregion Chicago | Chicagoland

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Chicagoland".

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