City · Cook County, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago is a city in Cook County, Illinois, part of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area. It has 2,711,226 residents. Chicago, Illinois has a quality-of-life score of 38 out of 100 (low), ranking #9,765 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Illinois it ranks #464 of 697 cities and towns. It ranks best on public transit commuters (high), distance to an emergency room (low) and access to exercise opportunities (high). It ranks worst on income inequality (Gini index) (high), average commute time (high) and days with unhealthy air (high).

38Low

Quality-of-life score: #9,765 of 15,651 cities and towns
Illinois: #464 of 697 in IL
Population: 2,711,226 (2020-2024)
Land area: 228 mi²
Density: 11,904.5 /mi²
FIPS code: 1714000

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety14#13,400/15,637
Economy34#10,246/15,631
Housing49#7,651/14,977
Health68#5,005/15,609
Healthcare66#5,299/15,650
Environment7#14,286/15,453
Education47#8,291/15,649
Infrastructure31#10,784/15,650
Community50#7,872/15,651
Leisure & amenities74#4,027/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Chicago, Illinois ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Cook County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Public transit commuters · high17.7%
99/100Illinois 5.8%United States 3.2%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08301
Distance to an emergency room · low2.1 mi
99/100Illinois 4.0 miUnited States 5.5 miJul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesCook County value
Access to exercise opportunities · high99.1%
96/100Illinois 90.6%United States 84.5%2022 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteCook County value
Distance to an airport · low9 mi
94/100Illinois 35 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauCook County value
Average weekly wage · high$1,740
94/100Illinois $1,539United States $1,5142025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsCook County value
Distance to an Amtrak station · low6 mi
92/100Illinois 13 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauCook County value

Weaknesses

Income inequality (Gini index) · high0.523
2/100Illinois 0.481United States 0.4832020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B19083
Average commute time · high33.1 min
3/100Illinois 27.8 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Days with unhealthy air · high6.8%
6/100Illinois 4.2%2025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyCook County value
Homicide rate · high10.8 /100k
7/100Illinois 6.2 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataCook County value
Violent crime rate · high534 /100k
9/100Illinois 251 /100kUnited States 328 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationEstimated from related areas or data (see the source notes)Cook County value
Property crime rate · high2,257 /100k
9/100Illinois 1,508 /100kUnited States 1,535 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationCook County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Public transit commutersWorsening
28.2% (2015-2019) → 17.7% (2020-2024)
−11 pts5 yearsCensus table B08301US 5.0% → 3.2%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
78.8% (2015-2019) → 89.1% (2020-2024)
+10 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
New homes permittedWorsening
1.9 /1k (2021) → 1.2 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−41%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Median household incomeImproving
$58,247 (2015-2019) → $77,902 (2020-2024)
+34%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
39.5% (2015-2019) → 44.3% (2020-2024)
+4.9 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Child poverty rateImproving
26.8% (2015-2019) → 23.6% (2020-2024)
−3.3 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Chicago, Illinois improved on 8 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 5 moved within the margin of error and 1 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved8

Price / income−0.1×4.4× → 4.3×
Commute−2.0 min35.1 min → 33.1 min
Bachelor's++4.9 points39.5% → 44.3%
Household income+34%$58,247 → $77,902
Broadband+10 points78.8% → 89.1%

Declined1

Transit use−11 points28.2% → 17.7%

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of Chicago, Illinois between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	35.1 min2015-2019	33.1 min2020-2024	−2.0 min	Improved	71%
Bachelor's degree or higher	39.5%2015-2019	44.3%2020-2024	+4.9 points	Improved	67%
Broadband subscriptions	78.8%2015-2019	89.1%2020-2024	+10 points	Improved	61%
Child poverty rate	26.8%2015-2019	23.6%2020-2024	−3.3 points	Improved	62%
Effective property tax rate	1.41%2015-2019	1.45%2020-2024	+0 points	Within the margin of error	11%
High school diploma or higher	85.1%2015-2019	87.2%2020-2024	+2.1 points	Improved	60%
Home price to income ratio	4.4×2015-2019	4.3×2020-2024	−0.1×	Improved	85%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.5322015-2019	0.5232020-2024	−0.008	Little change	58%
Median household income	$58,2472015-2019	$77,9022020-2024	+34%	Improved	63%
Poverty rate	18.4%2015-2019	16.8%2020-2024	−1.6 points	Improved	59%
Public transit commuters	28.2%2015-2019	17.7%2020-2024	−11 points	Declined	2%
Rent as share of income	29.5%2015-2019	29.3%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Within the margin of error	57%
Rent-burdened households	48.8%2015-2019	48.3%2020-2024	−0.5 points	Within the margin of error	58%
Unemployment rate	8.1%2015-2019	8.0%2020-2024	−0.1 points	Within the margin of error	51%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	10.8%2015-2019	11.0%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	43%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Chicago, Illinois five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Chicago, Illinois in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Chicago, Illinois itself moved +1.9 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

2,711,226 residents (±63)

Men
Women

80 and over
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

1,160,205 households (±3,944)

Chicago, Illinois
Illinois share

Under $25k19%217,896
$25k–50k16%185,404
$50k–75k14%159,439

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

1,160,205 households (±3,944)

Chicago, Illinois
Illinois share

Own46%534,012
Rent54%626,193

Biggest shift since 2015–2019: Own (+1.0 points).

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

1,364,366 workers (±7,536)

Chicago, Illinois
Illinois share

Drive alone45%610,521
Carpool7.4%100,280
Public transit18%241,532

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Cook County, the county holding most of Chicago's residents.

Cook County has 134,513 employer establishments, 262 for every 10,000 residents (1.05× the US rate of 248; 1.02× Illinois's), with 2,492,328 paid employees at an average annual pay of $83,113. The Census Bureau also counts 578,139 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 134,513; 578,139 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 262; US 248 · Illinois 255
Paid employees: 2,492,328
Average annual pay: $83,113; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Cook County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	12,255	23.8	1.14×About typical	120,830	$73,746	26,012
Restaurants and other eating places	10,283	20	1.09×About typical	175,761	$29,528	3,209
Truck transportation	6,896	13.4	2.65×More than typical	35,576	$58,890	37,659
Specialty trade contractors	6,308	12.3	0.79×Fewer than typical	51,795	$91,576	24,041
Lessors of real estate	6,106	11.9	0.96×About typical	36,481	$90,793	47,456
Limited-service restaurants	4,656	9.1	1.13×About typical	71,531	$23,650	1,099
Management, scientific and technical consulting	4,501	8.8	1.30×More than typical	78,036	$144,574	20,774
Full-service restaurants	4,330	8.4	1.10×About typical	87,914	$35,009	1,468
Legal services	4,152	8.1	1.50×More than typical	39,614	$166,701	6,046
Construction of buildings	4,132	8	1.06×About typical	19,598	$98,127	22,202
Offices of other health practitioners	4,034	7.8	1.29×More than typical	22,664	$51,319	10,130
Offices of physicians	3,409	6.6	1.02×About typical	42,167	$110,011	4,357

Rank places for an industry Open Cook County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 5,142,853 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $1.5B of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Chicago, Illinois: $565 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $1.5B; +8.3% vs FY2025
Per resident: $565; US $1,994
Sole-source: 5.7%; US 30%
Single offer: 17%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Defense Logistics Agency$370.6M24%
Department of the Army$306.8M20%
Department of Veterans Affairs$195.6M13%
Agricultural Marketing Service$117.7M7.7%
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention$48.8M3.2%
Public Buildings Service$48.3M3.2%
Office of Procurement Operations$40.3M2.6%
Environmental Protection Agency$38.4M2.5%

Top recipients

BP PRODUCTS NORTH AMERICA INC.$343.3M22%
DDB CHICAGO INC.$297.6M19%
NATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER$130.1M8.5%
US FOODS INC$106.9M7.0%
CHERRY MEAT PACKERS, INC$69M4.5%

Spending by fiscal year

1.7BFY2017
1.8BFY2018
1.5BFY2019
1.8BFY2020
1.9BFY2021
3.1BFY2022
2.9BFY2023
2.5B

Top industries (NAICS)

Petroleum and coal products manufacturing · 3241$349.8M23%
Advertising, public relations, and related services · 5418$298.2M19%
Animal slaughtering and processing · 3116$118M7.7%
Other food manufacturing · 3119$107M7.0%
Computer systems design and related services · 5415$88.7M5.8%
Architectural, engineering, and related services · 5413

Part of this section could not be loaded in time.

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Chicago, Illinois, so they do not add up across cities.

Chicago, Illinois's figures are part of those of Cook County, IL and DuPage County, IL ($7B in FY2026), never added to them: 22% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Chicago is mostly in Cook County.

See federal money in Cook County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Chicago, Illinois is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Cook County55100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN66

Other cities and towns in Cook County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/1714000

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends