Illinois

Illinois
Estado
Illinois
Bandera Sello
Apodo (s):  Tierra de Lincoln, Prairie State
Lema (s):  Soberanía del Estado, Unión Nacional
Himno: " Illinois "
Mapa de los Estados Unidos con Illinois resaltado
País	Estados Unidos
Antes de la estadidad	Territorio de Illinois
Admitido en la Unión	3 de diciembre de 1818 (21)
Capital	Springfield
Ciudad más grande	Chicago
Las áreas metropolitanas y urbanas más grandes	Chicago
Gobierno
•  Gobernador	JB Pritzker ( D )
•  Vicegobernador	Juliana Stratton (D)
Legislatura	Asamblea General de Illinois
•  Cámara alta	Senado
•  Cámara baja	Cámara de los Representantes
Judicial	Tribunal Supremo de Illinois
Senadores estadounidenses	Dick Durbin (D) Tammy Duckworth (D)
Delegación de la Cámara de los Estados Unidos	13 demócratas 5 republicanos ( lista )
Zona
• Total	149.997 km 2 (57.915 millas cuadradas )
• Tierra	55.593 millas cuadradas (143.969 km 2 )
• Agua	2.320 millas cuadradas (5.981 km 2 ) 3,99%
Rango de área	25
Dimensiones
• Largo	390 mi (628 km)
• Ancho	210 mi (338 km)
Elevación	600 pies (180 m)
Elevación más alta ( Charles Mound [1] [2] [3] )	1.235 pies (376,4 m)
Elevación más baja (Confluencia del río Mississippi y el río Ohio [2] [3] )	280 pies (85 m)
Población  (2020)
• Total	12,812,508 [4]
• Rango	Sexto
• Densidad	232 / millas cuadradas (89,4 / km 2 )
• Rango de densidad	12
•  Ingreso familiar promedio	$ 65,030 [5]
• Rango de ingresos	16 °
Demonym (s)	Illinoisan
Idioma
•  Idioma oficial	Inglés [6]
•  Idioma hablado	Inglés (80,8%) Español (14,9%) Otro (5,1%)
Zona horaria	UTC − 06: 00 ( hora central )
• Verano ( DST )	UTC − 05: 00 ( CDT )
Abreviatura de USPS	ILLINOIS
Código ISO 3166	US-IL
Abreviatura tradicional	Voy a.
Latitud	36 ° 58 ′ N hasta 42 ° 30 ′ N
Longitud	87 ° 30 ′ W a 91 ° 31 ′ W
Sitio web	www .illinois .gov

Símbolos del estado de Illinois
Bandera de illinois
Insignia viviente
Anfibio	Salamandra tigre del este
Pájaro	Cardenal norteño
Mariposa	Mariposa monarca
Pez	Bluegill
Flor	Violeta
Césped	Big bluestem
Mamífero	Venado de cola blanca
Reptil	Tortuga pintada
Árbol	Roble blanco
Insignia inanimada
Danza	Danza cuadrada
Comida	Manzana Gold Rush , palomitas de maíz
Fósil	Monstruo de Tully
Mineral	Fluorita
Eslogan	"Tierra de Lincoln"
Tierra	Baterista franco arcilloso limoso
Marcador de ruta estatal
Barrio del estado
Lanzado en 2003
Listas de símbolos estatales de Estados Unidos

Illinois ( / ˌ del ɪ l ə n ɔɪ / ( escuchar ) IL -ə- NOY ) es un estado en el Medio Oeste región del Estados Unidos . Tiene el quinto producto interno bruto (PIB) más grande , la sexta población más grande y la vigésimo quinta superficie terrestre más grande de todos los estados de EE. UU. Illinois se ha señalado como un microcosmos de todo Estados Unidos. ^[7] Con Chicago en el noreste de Illinois, pequeñas ciudades industriales e inmensasla productividad agrícola en el norte y el centro del estado, y los recursos naturales como el carbón, la madera y el petróleo en el sur, Illinois tiene una base económica diversa y es un importante centro de transporte . El puerto de Chicago conecta el estado con los puertos internacionales a través de dos rutas principales: desde los Grandes Lagos , a través de la vía marítima de San Lorenzo , hasta el océano Atlántico y desde los Grandes Lagos hasta el río Mississippi , a través del río Illinois , a través de la vía fluvial de Illinois . El río Mississippi, el río Ohio y el río Wabashforman parte de los límites de Illinois. Durante décadas, el Aeropuerto Internacional O'Hare de Chicago ha sido clasificado como uno de los aeropuertos más transitados del mundo. Illinois ha tenido durante mucho tiempo la reputación de ser un referente tanto en términos sociales y culturales ^[7] como, durante la década de 1980, en política .

La capital de Illinois es Springfield , que se encuentra en la parte central del estado. Aunque en la actualidad el centro de población más grande de Illinois se encuentra en el noreste, la población europea del estado creció primero en el oeste cuando los franceses se establecieron en tierras cerca del río Mississippi, cuando la región se conocía como el país de Illinois y era parte de Nueva Francia . Después de la Guerra de Independencia de los Estados Unidos , los colonos estadounidenses comenzaron a llegar de Kentucky en la década de 1780 a través del río Ohio, y la población creció de sur a norte. En 1818, Illinois alcanzó la condición de estado . Tras el aumento de la actividad comercial en los Grandes Lagos tras la construcción del Canal Erie, Chicago se incorporó en la década de 1830 a orillas del río Chicago en uno de los pocos puertos naturales en la sección sur del lago Michigan . ^[8] La invención de John Deere del arado de acero autofrenante convirtió la rica pradera de Illinois en una de las tierras de cultivo más productivas y valiosas del mundo, atrayendo a agricultores inmigrantes de Alemania y Suecia . El canal de Illinois y Michigan(1848) hizo que el transporte entre los Grandes Lagos y el valle del río Mississippi fuera más rápido y más barato, y los nuevos ferrocarriles llevaron a los inmigrantes a nuevos hogares en el oeste del país y enviaron cultivos básicos al este de la nación. El estado se convirtió en un centro de transporte para la nación. ^[9]

Para 1900, el crecimiento de los empleos industriales en las ciudades del norte y la minería del carbón en las áreas central y sur atrajeron a inmigrantes del este y sur de Europa. Illinois fue un importante centro de fabricación durante las dos guerras mundiales. La Gran Migración del Sur estableció una gran comunidad de afroamericanos en el estado, incluida Chicago, que fundó las famosas culturas de jazz y blues de la ciudad . ^{[10] [11]} Chicago, el centro del área metropolitana de Chicago , ahora es reconocida como una ciudad global . Chicagoland , área metropolitana de Chicago, abarca aproximadamente el 65% de la población del estado. Las áreas metropolitanas más pobladas fuera del área de Chicago incluyen Metro East (de Greater St. Louis), Peoria y Rockford .

Tres presidentes estadounidenses han sido elegidos mientras vivían en Illinois: Abraham Lincoln , Ulysses S. Grant y Barack Obama . Además, Ronald Reagan , cuya carrera política se basó en California , nació y se crió en el estado. Hoy, Illinois rinde homenaje a Lincoln con su lema estatal oficial Land of Lincoln , que se muestra en sus placas de matrícula desde 1954. ^{[12] [13]} El estado es el sitio de la Biblioteca y Museo Presidencial Abraham Lincoln en Springfield y el futuro hogar del Centro Presidencial Barack Obama en Chicago.

Etimología

"Illinois" es la ortografía moderna de los primeros misioneros católicos franceses y el nombre de los exploradores para los nativos americanos de Illinois , un nombre que se deletreaba de muchas formas diferentes en los primeros registros. ^[14]

Los académicos estadounidenses anteriormente pensaban que el nombre Illinois significaba "hombre" o "hombres" en el idioma de Miami-Illinois , con el iliniwek original transformado a través del francés en Illinois. ^{[15] [16]} Esta etimología no es compatible con el idioma de Illinois, ^{[ cita requerida ]} ya que la palabra para "hombre" es ireniwa , y el plural de "hombre" es ireniwaki . También se ha dicho que el nombre Illiniwek significa "tribu de hombres superiores", ^[17] que es una etimología falsa . El nombre Illinois deriva del verbo Miami-Illinois irenwe · wa'habla de la manera habitual'. Esto se tomó en el idioma Ojibwe , quizás en el dialecto de Ottawa , y se modificó en ilinwe · (pluralizado como ilinwe · k ). Los franceses tomaron prestadas estas formas, deletreando la terminación / we / como -ois , una transliteración de ese sonido en el francés de esa época. La forma de ortografía actual, Illinois , comenzó a aparecer a principios de la década de 1670, cuando los colonos franceses se establecieron en el área occidental. El nombre de Illinois para ellos mismos, como se atestigua en los tres diccionarios franceses del período misionero de Illinois, era Inoka , de significado desconocido y sin relación con los otros términos. ^[18][19]

Historia

Historia geológica

Durante la primera parte de la Era Paleozoica , el área que algún día se convertiría en Illinois estaba sumergida bajo un mar poco profundo y ubicada cerca del Ecuador. En esta época vivió una diversa vida marina, incluidos trilobites , braquiópodos y crinoideos . Las condiciones ambientales cambiantes llevaron a la formación de grandes pantanos de carbón en el Carbonífero .

Illinois estuvo sobre el nivel del mar durante al menos parte del Mesozoico , pero al final fue sumergido nuevamente por el Western Interior Seaway . Esto retrocedió por la época del Eoceno .

Durante la época del Pleistoceno , vastas capas de hielo cubrieron gran parte de Illinois, y solo quedó expuesta el Área sin deriva . Estos glaciares tallaron la cuenca del lago Michigan y dejaron rastros de antiguos lagos glaciares y morrenas . ^[20]

Preeuropeo

Los indios americanos de culturas sucesivas vivieron a lo largo de las vías fluviales del área de Illinois durante miles de años antes de la llegada de los europeos. El sitio de Koster ha sido excavado y demuestra 7.000 años de habitación continua. Cahokia , el mayor cacicazgo regional y centro urbano de la cultura precolombina de Mississippian , estaba ubicado cerca de la actual Collinsville, Illinois . Construyeron un complejo urbano de más de 100 plataformas y túmulos , una plaza de 50 acres (20 ha) más grande que 35 campos de fútbol, ^[21]y un woodhenge de cedro sagrado, todo en un diseño planificado que expresa la cosmología de la cultura. Monks Mound , el centro del sitio, es la estructura precolombina más grande al norte del Valle de México . Tiene 100 pies (30 m) de altura, 951 pies (290 m) de largo, 836 pies (255 m) de ancho y cubre 13,8 acres (5,6 ha). ^[22] Contiene aproximadamente 814.000 yardas cúbicas (622.000 m ³ ) de tierra. ^[23] Estaba coronado por una estructura que se cree que medía alrededor de 105 pies (32 m) de largo y 48 pies (15 m) de ancho, cubría un área de 5,000 pies cuadrados (460 m ^2).), y ha tenido hasta 50 pies (15 m) de altura, lo que hace que su pico sea 150 pies (46 m) sobre el nivel de la plaza. Los ornamentos y herramientas finamente elaborados recuperados por los arqueólogos en Cahokia incluyen cerámicas elaboradas, trabajos en piedra finamente esculpidos, láminas de cobre y mica cuidadosamente grabadas y en relieve , y una manta funeraria para un jefe importante hecha con 20.000 cuentas de concha. Estos artefactos indican que Cahokia era verdaderamente un centro urbano, con viviendas agrupadas, mercados y especialistas en la fabricación de herramientas, preparación de cueros, macetas, joyería, grabado de conchas, tejido y fabricación de sal. ^[24]

La civilización desapareció en el siglo XV por razones desconocidas, pero historiadores y arqueólogos han especulado que la gente agotó el área de recursos. Muchas tribus indígenas participan en la guerra constante. Según Suzanne Austin Alchon, "en un sitio en el valle central del río Illinois , un tercio de todos los adultos murieron como resultado de heridas violentas". ^[25] La siguiente gran potencia en la región fue la Confederación de Illinois o Illini, una alianza política. ^[26] A medida que los Illini declinaban durante la era de Beaver Wars , los miembros del Potawatomi de habla algonquina , Miami , SaukY otras tribus, incluyendo el Fox ( Mesquakie ), Ioway , kikapú , Mascouten , Piankashaw , Shawnee , Wea , y Winnebago ( Ho-Chunk ) entraron en la zona desde el este y el norte alrededor de los Grandes Lagos. ^{[27] [28]}

Exploración y asentamiento europeo antes de 1800

Los exploradores franceses Jacques Marquette y Louis Jolliet exploraron el río Illinois en 1673. Poco después, Marquette fundó una misión en el Grand Village of the Illinois en Illinois Country . En 1680, los exploradores franceses de René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle y Henri de Tonti construyeron un fuerte en el sitio de la actual Peoria , y en 1682, un fuerte en la cima de Starved Rock en el actual Parque Estatal Starved Rock. Los canadienses del Imperio francés llegaron al sur para establecerse particularmente a lo largo del río Mississippi, e Illinois fue parte de la primera Nueva Francia y luego deLa Louisiane hasta 1763, cuando pasó a los británicos con su derrota de Francia en la Guerra de los Siete Años . Los pequeños asentamientos franceses continuaron, aunque muchos franceses emigraron hacia el oeste a Ste. Genevieve y St. Louis, Missouri , para evadir el dominio británico. ^[30]

Algunos soldados británicos fueron apostados en Illinois, pero pocos colonos británicos o estadounidenses se trasladaron allí, ya que la Corona lo convirtió en parte del territorio reservado para los indios al oeste de los Apalaches y luego en parte de la provincia británica de Quebec . En 1778, George Rogers Clark reclamó el condado de Illinois para Virginia . En un compromiso, Virginia (y otros estados que hicieron varios reclamos) cedieron el área a los nuevos Estados Unidos en la década de 1780 y se convirtió en parte del Territorio del Noroeste , administrado por el gobierno federal y luego organizado como estados. ^[30]

Siglo 19

Antes de la estadidad

El Illinois-Wabash Company era un reclamante pronto para gran parte de Illinois. El Territorio de Illinois se creó el 3 de febrero de 1809, con su capital en Kaskaskia , uno de los primeros asentamientos franceses.

Durante las discusiones que llevaron a la admisión de Illinois a la Unión , el límite norte propuesto del estado se movió dos veces. ^[31] Las disposiciones originales de la Ordenanza del Noroestehabía especificado un límite que habría sido tangente al extremo sur del lago Michigan. Tal límite habría dejado a Illinois sin ninguna línea de costa en el lago Michigan. Sin embargo, dado que a Indiana se le había otorgado con éxito una extensión norte de 10 millas (16 km) de su límite para proporcionarle un frente de lago utilizable, el proyecto de ley original para la condición de estado de Illinois, presentado al Congreso el 23 de enero de 1818, estipulaba una frontera norte en la misma latitud que la de Indiana, que se define como 10 millas al norte del extremo sur del lago Michigan. Sin embargo, el delegado de Illinois, Nathaniel Pope, quería más y presionó para que el límite se trasladara más al norte. El proyecto de ley final aprobado por el Congreso incluyó una enmienda para cambiar la frontera a 42 ° 30 'norte, que está aproximadamente a 51 millas (82 km) al norte de la frontera norte de Indiana. Este cambio agregó 8.500 millas cuadradas (22.000 km ² ) al estado, incluida la región minera de plomo cerca de Galena . Más importante aún, agregó casi 50 millas de la costa del lago Michigan y el río Chicago. Pope y otros imaginaron un canal que conectaría los ríos Chicago e Illinois y así conectaría los Grandes Lagos con el Mississippi.

El estado de Illinois antes de la Guerra Civil

En 1818, Illinois se convirtió en el vigésimo primer estado de EE. UU. La capital permaneció en Kaskaskia, con sede en un pequeño edificio alquilado por el estado. En 1819, Vandalia se convirtió en la capital, y durante los siguientes 18 años, se construyeron tres edificios separados para servir sucesivamente como edificio del capitolio. En 1837, los legisladores estatales que representaban al condado de Sangamon , bajo el liderazgo del representante estatal Abraham Lincoln, lograron que la capital se trasladara a Springfield , ^[32] donde se construyó un quinto edificio del capitolio . Un sexto edificio del capitolio fue erigido en 1867, que continúa sirviendo como el capitolio de Illinois en la actualidad.

Aunque aparentemente era un " estado libre ", no obstante, existía la esclavitud en Illinois . La etnia francesa había tenido esclavos negros desde la década de 1720, y los colonos estadounidenses ya habían traído esclavos al área desde Kentucky. La esclavitud fue nominalmente prohibida por la Ordenanza del Noroeste, pero eso no se aplicó para aquellos que ya tenían esclavos. Cuando Illinois se convirtió en un estado soberano en 1818, la Ordenanza dejó de aplicarse y se retuvieron alrededor de 900 esclavos en el estado. Como la parte sur del estado, más tarde conocida como "Egipto" o "Pequeño Egipto", ^{[33] [34]}fue poblada en gran parte por inmigrantes del sur, la sección era hostil a los negros libres. A los colonos se les permitió traer esclavos para trabajar, pero, en 1822, los residentes del estado votaron en contra de legalizar la esclavitud. Aún así, la mayoría de los residentes se opuso a permitir que los negros libres como residentes permanentes. Algunos colonos traían esclavos estacionalmente o como sirvientes domésticos. ^[35] La Constitución de Illinois de 1848 se redactó con una disposición para la aprobación de leyes de exclusión. En 1853, John A. Logan ayudó a aprobar una ley que prohibía a todos los afroamericanos, incluidos los libertos , establecerse en el estado. ^[36]

El invierno de 1830-1831 se llama el "invierno de la nieve profunda"; una repentina y profunda nevada cubrió el estado, haciendo imposible viajar durante el resto del invierno, y muchos viajeros perecieron. Siguieron varios inviernos severos, incluido el "Invierno de la helada repentina". El 20 de diciembre de 1836, un frente frío en rápido movimiento lo atravesó, congelando charcos en minutos y matando a muchos viajeros que no podían llegar a un refugio. El clima adverso resultó en malas cosechas en la parte norte del estado. La parte sur del estado enviaba alimentos al norte, y esto puede haber contribuido a su nombre: " Pequeño Egipto ", después de la historia bíblica de José en Egipto suministrando grano a sus hermanos. ^[37]

En 1832, la Guerra del Halcón Negro se libró en Illinois y la actual Wisconsin entre los Estados Unidos y las tribus indígenas Sauk , Fox (Meskwaki) y Kickapoo . Representa el fin de la resistencia india al asentamiento blanco en la región de Chicago. ^[38] Los indios se vieron obligados a abandonar sus hogares y trasladarse a Iowa en 1831; cuando intentaron regresar, fueron atacados y finalmente derrotados por la milicia estadounidense. Los supervivientes fueron obligados a regresar a Iowa. ^[39]

Para 1839, los Santos de los Últimos Días habían fundado una ciudad utópica llamada Nauvoo . Ubicada en el condado de Hancock a lo largo del río Mississippi, Nauvoo floreció y pronto rivalizó con Chicago por la posición de la ciudad más grande del estado. Pero en 1844, el fundador del movimiento Santo de los Últimos Días , José Smith, fue asesinado en la cárcel de Carthage , a unas 30 millas de Nauvoo. Después de una crisis de sucesión (Santos de los Últimos Días) , Brigham Young sacó a la mayoría de los Santos de los Últimos Días de Illinois en un éxodo masivo a la actual Utah; después de casi seis años de rápido desarrollo, Nauvoo declinó rápidamente.

Después de que se estableció en 1833, Chicago ganó prominencia como puerto de los Grandes Lagos , y luego como puerto del canal de Illinois y Michigan después de 1848, y como centro ferroviario poco después. En 1857, Chicago era la ciudad más grande de Illinois. ^[30] Con el tremendo crecimiento de las minas y fábricas en el estado en el siglo XIX, Illinois fue la base para la formación de sindicatos en los Estados Unidos .

En 1847, después de la presión ejercida por Dorothea L. Dix , Illinois se convirtió en uno de los primeros estados en establecer un sistema de tratamiento de enfermedades mentales y discapacidades apoyado por el estado, en sustitución de las casas de beneficencia locales . Dix entró en este esfuerzo después de haber conocido a JO King, un hombre de negocios de Jacksonville, Illinois , quien la invitó a Illinois, donde había estado trabajando para construir un asilo para locos. Con la experiencia de cabildeo de Dix, los planes para el Hospital Estatal de Jacksonville (ahora conocido como el Centro de Desarrollo de Jacksonville ) se convirtieron en ley el 1 de marzo de 1847. ^[40]

Guerra Civil y después

Durante la Guerra Civil Estadounidense , Illinois ocupó el cuarto lugar en hombres que sirvieron (más de 250.000) en el Ejército de la Unión , una cifra solo superada por Nueva York, Pensilvania y Ohio . Comenzando con la primera convocatoria de tropas del presidente Abraham Lincoln y continuando durante toda la guerra, Illinois reunió 150 regimientos de infantería, que fueron numerados del 7 al 156 regimientos. También se reunieron diecisiete regimientos de caballería, así como dos regimientos de artillería ligera. ^[41] La ciudad de El Cairo , en el extremo sur del estado en la confluencia de los ríos Mississippi y Ohio, sirvió como una base de suministro de importancia estratégica y un centro de capacitación para la Unión.Ejército. Durante varios meses, tanto el general Grant como el almirante Foote tuvieron su sede en El Cairo.

Durante la Guerra Civil, y más aún después, la población de Chicago se disparó, lo que aumentó su prominencia. La huelga de Pullman y el motín de Haymarket , en particular, influyeron enormemente en el desarrollo del movimiento obrero estadounidense . Desde el domingo 8 de octubre de 1871 hasta el martes 10 de octubre de 1871, el Gran Incendio de Chicago ardió en el centro de Chicago, destruyendo cuatro millas cuadradas (10 km ² ). ^[42]

siglo 20

A principios del siglo XX, Illinois tenía una población de casi 5 millones. Muchas personas de otras partes del país se sintieron atraídas por el estado por el empleo causado por la base industrial en expansión. Los blancos eran el 98% de la población del estado. ^[43] Impulsada por la continua inmigración del sur y el este de Europa , y por la gran migración afroamericana del sur, Illinois creció y emergió como uno de los estados más importantes de la unión. A finales de siglo, la población había alcanzado los 12,4 millones.

La feria mundial Century of Progress se celebró en Chicago en 1933. Las huelgas petroleras en el condado de Marion y el condado de Crawford provocaron un auge en 1937, y en 1939, Illinois ocupaba el cuarto lugar en la producción de petróleo de EE. UU. Illinois fabricó el 6,1 por ciento del armamento militar total de Estados Unidos producido durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial , ocupando el séptimo lugar entre los 48 estados. ^[44] Chicago se convirtió en un puerto oceánico con la apertura de la vía marítima de San Lorenzo en 1959. La vía marítima y la vía fluvial de Illinois conectaron Chicago con el río Mississippi y el océano Atlántico . En 1960, Ray Kroc abrió el primer McDonald'sfranquicia en Des Plaines (que todavía existe como museo, con un McDonald's en funcionamiento al otro lado de la calle).

Illinois tuvo un papel destacado en el surgimiento de la era nuclear . En 1942, como parte del Proyecto Manhattan , la Universidad de Chicago llevó a cabo la primera reacción nuclear en cadena sostenida . En 1957, el Laboratorio Nacional Argonne , cerca de Chicago , activó el primer sistema experimental de generación de energía nuclear en los Estados Unidos. En 1960, la primera planta nuclear con financiación privada en los Estados Unidos, Dresden 1 , se inauguró cerca de Morris . En 1967, Fermilab , una instalación nacional de investigación nuclear cerca de Batavia , abrió un acelerador de partículas, que fue el más grande del mundo durante más de 40 años. Con once plantas en funcionamiento actualmente, Illinois lidera todos los estados en la cantidad de electricidad generada a partir de la energía nuclear. ^{[45] [46]}

En 1961, Illinois se convirtió en el primer estado de la nación en adoptar la recomendación del American Law Institute y aprobar una revisión integral del código penal que derogó la ley contra la sodomía . El código también derogó los delitos de derecho común y estableció una edad de consentimiento de 18 años. ^[47] La cuarta constitución del estado fue adoptada en 1970, reemplazando el documento de 1870. ^[48]

El primer concierto de Farm Aid se llevó a cabo en Champaign para beneficiar a los agricultores estadounidenses, en 1985. La peor inundación del siglo en la parte superior del río Mississippi , la Gran Inundación de 1993 , inundó muchas ciudades y miles de acres de tierras agrícolas. ^[30]

Siglo 21

El 28 de agosto de 2017, el gobernador de Illinois, Bruce Rauner, promulgó un proyecto de ley que prohibía a la policía estatal y local arrestar a cualquier persona únicamente debido a su estado migratorio o debido a detenciones federales. ^{[49] [50]} Algunos compañeros republicanos criticaron a Rauner por su acción, alegando que el proyecto de ley convirtió a Illinois en un estado santuario . ^[51]

Geografía

Illinois se encuentra en la región del Medio Oeste de los Estados Unidos y es uno de los ocho estados y Ontario, Canadá, en la región de los Grandes Lagos de América del Norte.

Límites

La frontera este de Illinois con Indiana consiste en una línea norte-sur a 87 ° 31 ′ 30 ″ de longitud oeste en el lago Michigan en el norte, hasta el río Wabash en el sur sobre Post Vincennes . El río Wabash continúa como la frontera este / sureste con Indiana hasta que el Wabash ingresa al río Ohio . Esto marca el comienzo de la frontera sur de Illinois con Kentucky , que corre a lo largo de la costa norte del río Ohio. ^[52] La mayor parte de la frontera occidental con Missouri e Iowa es el río Mississippi ; Kaskaskia es un enclavede Illinois, al oeste del Mississippi y solo accesible desde Missouri. La frontera norte del estado con Wisconsin está fijada a 42 ° 30 ′ de latitud norte. La frontera noreste de Illinois se encuentra en el lago Michigan , dentro del cual Illinois comparte un límite de agua con el estado de Michigan , así como con Wisconsin e Indiana. ^[27]

Topografía

Aunque Illinois se encuentra completamente en las llanuras interiores , tiene algunas variaciones menores en su elevación. En el extremo noroeste de Illinois, el Driftless Area , una región de topografía sin glaciar y, por lo tanto, más alta y accidentada, ocupa una pequeña parte del estado. El sur de Illinois incluye las áreas montañosas alrededor del Bosque Nacional Shawnee .

Charles Mound , ubicado en la región Driftless, tiene la elevación natural más alta del estado sobre el nivel del mar a 1.235 pies (376 m). Otras tierras altas incluyen las colinas de Shawnee en el sur, y hay una topografía variable a lo largo de sus ríos; el río Illinois biseca el estado de noreste a suroeste. La llanura aluvial del río Mississippi desde Alton hasta el río Kaskaskia se conoce como American Bottom .

Divisiones

Illinois tiene tres divisiones geográficas principales. El norte de Illinois está dominado por el área metropolitana de Chicago , o Chicagoland, que es la ciudad de Chicago y sus suburbios, y el área exurbana contigua hacia la que se está expandiendo la metrópoli. Según la definición del gobierno federal, el área metropolitana de Chicago incluye varios condados en Illinois, Indiana y Wisconsin , y tiene una población de más de 9,8 millones. Chicago en sí es una ciudad cosmopolita, densamente poblada, industrializada, el centro de transporte de la nación y poblada por una amplia variedad de grupos étnicos. La ciudad de Rockford , la tercera ciudad más grande de Illinois y el centro de la cuarta área metropolitana más grande del estado, se encuentra a lo largo de las carreteras interestatales.39 y 90 a unas 75 millas (121 km) al noroeste de Chicago. La región de Quad Cities , ubicada a lo largo del río Mississippi en el norte de Illinois, tenía una población de 381,342 en 2011.

La sección media de Illinois es la segunda división principal, llamada Central Illinois . Es un área de pradera principalmente y conocida como el Corazón de Illinois. Se caracteriza por pueblos pequeños y ciudades medianas-pequeñas. La sección occidental (al oeste del río Illinois) fue originalmente parte de la Zona Militar de 1812 y forma el notorio bulto occidental del estado. La agricultura, en particular el maíz y la soja , así como las instituciones educativas y los centros de fabricación, ocupan un lugar destacado en el centro de Illinois. Las ciudades incluyen Peoria ; Springfield , la capital del estado; Quincy ; Decatur ;Bloomington-Normal ; y Champaign - Urbana . ^[27]

La tercera división es el sur de Illinois , que comprende el área al sur de la ruta 50 de los EE. UU. , Incluido el Pequeño Egipto , cerca de la unión del río Mississippi y el río Ohio . El sur de Illinois es el sitio de la antigua ciudad de Cahokia , así como el sitio de la primera capital del estado en Kaskaskia , que hoy está separada del resto del estado por el río Mississippi. ^{[27] [54]} Esta región tiene un clima invernal algo más cálido, diferentes variedades de cultivos (incluido el cultivo de algodón en el pasado), una topografía más accidentada (debido a que el área permaneció sin glaciar durante la etapa Illinoian, a diferencia de la mayor parte del resto del estado), así como los yacimientos de petróleo a pequeña escala y la minería del carbón. Los suburbios de St. Louis en Illinois , como East St. Louis , se encuentran en esta región y, en conjunto, se conocen como Metro-East . La otra concentración algo significativa de población en el sur de Illinois es el área estadística combinada de Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, Illinois, centrada en Carbondale y Marion , un área de dos condados que alberga a 123.272 residentes. ^[27] Una parte del sureste de Illinois es parte del extenso Evansville, Indiana., Área Metro, localmente conocida como el Tri-State con Indiana y Kentucky. Siete condados de Illinois se encuentran en el área.

Además de estas tres divisiones, en gran parte definidas latitudinalmente, a toda la región fuera del área metropolitana de Chicago a menudo se la llama "zona baja del estado " de Illinois. Este término es flexible, pero generalmente significa todo lo que está fuera de la influencia del área de Chicago. Por lo tanto, algunas ciudades del norte de Illinois, como DeKalb , que se encuentra al oeste de Chicago, y Rockford, que en realidad está al norte de Chicago, a veces se consideran incorrectamente como "estado del norte".

Clima

Illinois tiene un clima que varía mucho a lo largo del año. Debido a su distancia de casi 400 millas entre sus extremos más al norte y al sur, así como su situación continental media, la mayor parte de Illinois tiene un clima continental húmedo ( clasificación climática de Köppen Dfa ), con veranos cálidos y húmedos e inviernos fríos. La parte sur del estado, desde aproximadamente Carbondale hacia el sur, tiene un clima subtropical húmedo (Koppen Cfa), with more moderate winters. Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 inches (1,219 mm) at the southern tip to around 35 inches (889 mm) in the northern portion of the state. Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 inches (965 mm) in the Chicago area, while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 inches (356 mm).^[55] The all-time high temperature was 117 °F (47 °C), recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St. Louis, and the all-time low temperature was −38 °F (−39 °C), recorded on January 31, 2019, during the January 2019 North American cold wave at a weather station near Mount Carroll,^[56][57] and confirmed on March 5, 2019.^[58] This followed the previous record of −36 °F (−38 °C) recorded on January 5, 1999, near Congerville.^[58] Prior to the Mount Carroll record, a temperature of −37 °F (−38 °C) was recorded on January 15, 2009, at Rochelle, but at a weather station not subjected to the same quality control as official records.^[59][60]

Illinois averages approximately 51 days of thunderstorm activity a year, which ranks somewhat above average in the number of thunderstorm days for the United States. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes, with an average of 35 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10,000 square miles (30,000 km²) annually.^[61] While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states, some of Tornado Alley's deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred in the state. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people in three states; 613 of the victims died in Illinois.^[62]

Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Illinois Cities

City	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
Cairo[63]	43/25	48/29	59/37	70/46	78/57	86/67	90/71	88/69	81/61	71/49	57/39	46/30
Chicago[64]	31/16	36/21	47/31	59/42	70/52	81/61	85/65	83/65	75/57	64/45	48/34	36/22
Edwardsville[65]	36/19	42/24	52/34	64/45	75/55	84/64	89/69	86/66	79/58	68/46	53/35	41/25
Moline[66]	30/12	36/18	48/29	62/39	73/50	83/60	86/64	84/62	76/53	64/42	48/30	34/18
Peoria[67]	31/14	37/20	49/30	62/40	73/51	82/60	86/65	84/63	77/54	64/42	49/31	36/20
Rockford[68]	27/11	33/16	46/27	59/37	71/48	80/58	83/63	81/61	74/52	62/40	46/29	32/17
Springfield[69]	33/17	39/22	51/32	63/42	74/53	83/62	86/66	84/64	78/55	67/44	51/34	38/23

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1800	2,458		—
1810	12,282		399.7%
1820	55,211		349.5%
1830	157,445		185.2%
1840	476,183		202.4%
1850	851,470		78.8%
1860	1,711,951		101.1%
1870	2,539,891		48.4%
1880	3,077,871		21.2%
1890	3,826,352		24.3%
1900	4,821,550		26.0%
1910	5,638,591		16.9%
1920	6,485,280		15.0%
1930	7,630,654		17.7%
1940	7,897,241		3.5%
1950	8,712,176		10.3%
1960	10,081,158		15.7%
1970	11,113,976		10.2%
1980	11,426,518		2.8%
1990	11,430,602		0.0%
2000	12,419,293		8.6%
2010	12,830,632		3.3%
2020	12,812,508		−0.1%
Source: 1910–2020[70]

The United States Census Bureau found that the population of Illinois was 12,812,508 in the 2020 United States Census, moving from the fifth-largest state to the sixth-largest state (losing out to Pennsylvania). Illinois' population slightly declined in 2020 from the 2010 United States Census by just over 18,000 residents and the overall population was quite higher than recent Census estimates.^[71]

Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest region. Chicago, the third-most populous city in the United States, is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area or Chicagoland, as this area is nicknamed. Although Chicagoland comprises only 9% of the land area of the state, it contains 65% of the state's residents. The losses of population anticipated from the 2020 Census results do not arise from the Chicago metro area; rather the declines are from the Downstate counties.^[72]

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of the state was:

• 71.5% White American (63.7% non-Hispanic white, 7.8% White Hispanic)
• 14.5% Black or African American
• 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
• 4.6% Asian American
• 2.3% Multiracial American
• 6.8% some other race

In the same year 15.8% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).^[73]

Illinois Racial Breakdown of Population

Racial composition	1990[74]	2000[75]	2010[76]
White	78.3%	73.5%	71.5%
Black	14.8%	15.1%	14.5%
Asian	2.5%	3.4%	4.6%
Native	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander	—	—	—
Other race	4.2%	5.8%	6.7%
Two or more races	—	1.9%	2.3%

2019 American Community Survey

Racial Makeup of Illinois (2019)[77]   White alone (71.37%)   Black alone (14.13%)   Native American alone (0.26%)   Asian Alone (5.67%)   Pacific Islander Alone (0.04%)   Some other race alone (5.76%)   Two or more races (2.78%)

Racial/Ethnic Makeup of Illinois excluding Hispanics from racial categories (2019)[77] NH=Non-Hispanic   White NH (60.69%)   Black NH (13.88%)   Native American NH (0.10%)   Asian NH (5.60%)   Pacific Islander NH (0.02%)   Other NH (0.17%)   Two or more races NH (2.03%)   Hispanic Any Race (17.49%)

Racial Makeup of Hispanics in Illinois (2019)[77]   White alone (61.05%)   Black alone (1.40%)   Native American alone (0.89%)   Asian Alone (0.36%)   Pacific Islander Alone (0.07%)   Other race alone (31.96%)   Two or more races (4.28%)

According to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Illinois's population was 71.4% White (60.7% Non-Hispanic White), 5.6% Asian, 0.2% Some Other Race, 13.9% Black or African American, 0.1% Native Americans and Alaskan Native, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 2.0% from two or more races.^[77] The White population continues to remain the largest racial category in Illinois as Hispanics primarily identify as White (61.1%) with others identifying as Some Other Race (32.0%), Multiracial (4.3%), Black (1.4%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (0.2%), Asian (0.1%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%).^[77] By ethnicity, 17.5% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race) and 82.5% is Non-Hispanic (of any race). If treated as a separate category, Hispanics are the largest minority group in Illinois.^[77]

The state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 83.5% in 1970^[78] to 60.90% in 2018.^[79] As of 2011^[update], 49.4% of Illinois's population younger than age 1 were minorities (Note: Children born to white Hispanics or to a sole full or partial minority parent are counted as minorities).^[80]

At the 2007 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1,768,518 foreign-born inhabitants of the state or 13.8% of the population, with 48.4% from Latin America, 24.6% from Asia, 22.8% from Europe, 2.9% from Africa, 1.2% from Canada, and 0.2% from Oceania. Of the foreign-born population, 43.7% were naturalized U.S. citizens, and 56.3% were not U.S. citizens.^[81] In 2007, 6.9% of Illinois's population was reported as being under age 5, 24.9% under age 18 and 12.1% were age 65 and over. Females made up approximately 50.7% of the population.^[82]

According to the 2007 estimates, 21.1% of the population had German ancestry, 13.3% had Irish ancestry, 8% had British ancestry, 7.9% had Polish ancestry, 6.4% had Italian ancestry, 4.6% listed themselves as American, 2.4% had Swedish ancestry, 2.2% had French ancestry, other than Basque, 1.6% had Dutch ancestry, and 1.4% had Norwegian ancestry.^[81] Illinois also has large numbers of African Americans and Latinos (mostly Mexicans and Puerto Ricans).

Chicago, along the shores of Lake Michigan, is the nation's third largest city. In 2000, 23.3% of Illinois's population lived in the city of Chicago, 43.3% in Cook County, and 65.6% in the counties of the Chicago metropolitan area: Will, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties, as well as Cook County. The remaining population lives in the smaller cities and rural areas that dot the state's plains. As of 2000, the state's center of population was at 41°16′42″N 88°22′49″W / 41.278216°N 88.380238°W / 41.278216; -88.380238, located in Grundy County, northeast of the village of Mazon.^{[27][30][54][83]}

Birth data

Births do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by ethnicity and by race.

Live Births by Single Race/Ethnicity of Mother

Race	2013[84]	2014[85]	2015[86]	2016[87]	2017[88]	2018[89]	2019[90]
White:	119,157 (75.9%)	119,995 (75.7%)	119,630 (75.6%)	...	...	...	...
Non-Hispanic White	85,866 (54.7%)	86,227 (54.4%)	85,424 (54.0%)	82,318 (53.3%)	78,925 (52.8%)	77,244 (53.3%)	74,434 (53.1%)
Black	27,692 (17.6%)	28,160 (17.8%)	28,059 (17.7%)	25,619 (16.6%)	25,685 (17.2%)	24,482 (16.9%)	23,258 (16.6%)
Asian	9,848 (6.3%)	10,174 (6.4%)	10,222 (6.5%)	10,015 (6.5%)	9,650 (6.5%)	9,452 (6.5%)	9,169 (6.5%)
American Indian	234 (0.1%)	227 (0.1%)	205 (0.1%)	110 (0.0%)	133 (0.1%)	129 (0.1%)	119 (0.1%)
Hispanic (of any race)	33,454 (21.3%)	33,803 (21.3%)	33,902 (21.4%)	32,635 (21.1%)	31,428 (21.0%)	30,362 (21.0%)	30,097 (21.5%)
Total Illinois	156,931 (100%)	158,556 (100%)	158,116 (100%)	154,445 (100%)	149,390 (100%)	144,815 (100%)	140,128 (100%)

• Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Urban areas

Chicago is the largest city in the state and the third-most populous city in the United States, with its 2010 population of 2,695,598. The U.S. Census Bureau currently lists seven other cities with populations of over 100,000 within Illinois. Based upon the Census Bureau's official 2010 population:^[91] Aurora, a Chicago satellite town that eclipsed Rockford for the title of second-most populous city in Illinois; its 2010 population was 197,899. Rockford, at 152,871, is the third-largest city in the state, and is the largest city in the state not located within the Chicago suburbs. Joliet, located in metropolitan Chicago, is the fourth-largest city in the state, with a population of 147,433. Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, is fifth with 141,853. Naperville and Aurora share a boundary along Illinois Route 59. Springfield, the state's capital, comes in as sixth-most populous with 117,352 residents. Peoria, which decades ago was the second-most populous city in the state, is seventh with 115,007. The eighth-largest and final city in the 100,000 club is Elgin, a northwest suburb of Chicago, with a 2010 population of 108,188.

The most populated city in the state south of Springfield is Belleville, with 44,478 people at the 2010 census. It is located in the Illinois portion of Greater St. Louis (often called the Metro-East area), which has a rapidly growing population of over 700,000.

Other major urban areas include the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area, which has a combined population of almost 230,000 people, the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities area with about 215,000 people, and the Bloomington-Normal area with a combined population of over 165,000.

v t e Largest cities or towns in Illinois 2019 U.S. Census Bureau Estimate[92]
	Rank	Name	County	Pop.
Chicago Aurora	1	Chicago	Cook	2,693,976	Naperville Joliet
	2	Aurora	Kane	197,757
	3	Naperville	DuPage	148,449
	4	Joliet	Will	147,344
	5	Rockford	Winnebago	145,609
	6	Springfield	Sangamon	114,230
	7	Elgin	Kane / Cook	110,849
	8	Peoria	Peoria	110,417
	9	Champaign	Champaign	88,909
	10	Waukegan	Lake	86,075

Languages

The official language of Illinois is English,^[93] although between 1923 and 1969, state law gave official status to "the American language". Nearly 80% of people in Illinois speak English natively, and most of the rest speak it fluently as a second language.^[94] A number of dialects of American English are spoken, ranging from Inland Northern American English and African-American English around Chicago, to Midland American English in Central Illinois, to Southern American English in the far south.

Over 20% of Illinoians speak a language other than English at home, of which Spanish is by far the most widespread, at more than 12% of the total population.^[95] A sizeable number of Polish speakers is present in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Illinois Country French has mostly gone extinct in Illinois, although it is still celebrated in the French Colonial Historic District.

Religion

Christianity

Roman Catholics constitute the single largest religious denomination in Illinois; they are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago, and account for nearly 30% of the state's population.^[98] However, taken together as a group, the various Protestant denominations comprise a greater percentage of the state's population than do Catholics. In 2010 Catholics in Illinois numbered 3,648,907. The largest Protestant denominations were the United Methodist Church with 314,461, and the Southern Baptist Convention, with 283,519 members. Illinois has one of the largest concentrations of Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States.

Illinois played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement, with Nauvoo, Illinois, becoming a gathering place for Mormons in the early 1840s. Nauvoo was the location of the succession crisis, which led to the separation of the Mormon movement into several Latter Day Saint sects. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest of the sects to emerge from the Mormon schism, has more than 55,000 adherents in Illinois today.^[99]

Other Abrahamic religious communities

A significant number of adherents of other Abrahamic faiths can be found in Illinois. Largely concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area, followers of the Muslim, Baháʼí, and Jewish religions all call the state home.^[100] Muslims constituted the largest non-Christian group, with 359,264 adherents.^[101] Illinois has the largest concentration of Muslims by state in the country, with 2,800 Muslims per 100,000 citizens.^[102]

The largest and oldest surviving Baháʼí House of Worship in the world is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, Illinois, one of eight continental Baháʼí House of Worship.^[103] It serves as a space for people of all backgrounds and religions to gather, meditate, reflect, and pray, expressing the Baháʼí principle of the oneness of religions.^[104] The Chicago area has a very large Jewish community, particularly in the suburbs of Skokie, Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, and surrounding suburbs. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is the Windy City's first Jewish mayor.

Other religions

Chicago is also home to a very large population of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists.^[100]

Economy

The dollar gross state product for Illinois was estimated to be US$909 billion in 2019.^[105] The state's 2019 per capita gross state product was estimated to be around $72,000.^[106]

As of February 2019, the unemployment rate in Illinois reached 4.2%.^[107]

Illinois's minimum wage will rise to $15 per hour by 2025, making it one of the highest in the nation.^[108]

Agriculture

Illinois's major agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products, and wheat. In most years, Illinois is either the first or second state for the highest production of soybeans, with a harvest of 427.7 million bushels (11.64 million metric tons) in 2008, after Iowa's production of 444.82 million bushels (12.11 million metric tons).^[109] Illinois ranks second in U.S. corn production with more than 1.5 billion bushels produced annually.^[110] With a production capacity of 1.5 billion gallons per year, Illinois is a top producer of ethanol, ranking third in the United States in 2011.^[111] Illinois is a leader in food manufacturing and meat processing.^[112] Although Chicago may no longer be "Hog Butcher for the World", the Chicago area remains a global center for food manufacture and meat processing,^[112] with many plants, processing houses, and distribution facilities concentrated in the area of the former Union Stock Yards.^[113] Illinois also produces wine, and the state is home to two American viticultural areas. In the area of The Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway, peaches and apples are grown. The German immigrants from agricultural backgrounds who settled in Illinois in the mid- to late 19th century are in part responsible for the profusion of fruit orchards in that area of Illinois.^[114] Illinois's universities are actively researching alternative agricultural products as alternative crops.

Manufacturing

Illinois is one of the nation's manufacturing leaders, boasting annual value added productivity by manufacturing of over $107 billion in 2006. As of 2011^[update], Illinois is ranked as the 4th-most productive manufacturing state in the country, behind California, Texas, and Ohio.^[115] About three-quarters of the state's manufacturers are located in the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region, with 38 percent of Illinois's approximately 18,900 manufacturing plants located in Cook County. As of 2006, the leading manufacturing industries in Illinois, based upon value-added, were chemical manufacturing ($18.3 billion), machinery manufacturing ($13.4 billion), food manufacturing ($12.9 billion), fabricated metal products ($11.5 billion), transportation equipment ($7.4 billion), plastics and rubber products ($7.0 billion), and computer and electronic products ($6.1 billion).^[116]

Services

By the early 2000s, Illinois's economy had moved toward a dependence on high-value-added services, such as financial trading, higher education, law, logistics, and medicine. 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. Other important non-manufacturing industries include publishing, tourism, and energy production and distribution.

Investments

Venture capitalists funded a total of approximately $62 billion in the U.S. economy in 2016. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $1.1 billion. Similarly, in FY 2016, the federal government spent $461 billion on contracts in the U.S. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $8.7 billion.^[117]

Energy

Illinois is a net importer of fuels for energy, despite large coal resources and some minor oil production. Illinois exports electricity, ranking fifth among states in electricity production and seventh in electricity consumption.^[118]

Coal

The coal industry of Illinois has its origins in the middle 19th century, when entrepreneurs such as Jacob Loose discovered coal in locations such as Sangamon County. Jacob Bunn contributed to the development of the Illinois coal industry, and was a founder and owner of the Western Coal & Mining Company of Illinois. About 68% of Illinois has coal-bearing strata of the Pennsylvanian geologic period. According to the Illinois State Geological Survey, 211 billion tons of bituminous coal are estimated to lie under the surface, having a total heating value greater than the estimated oil deposits in the Arabian Peninsula.^[119] However, this coal has a high sulfur content, which causes acid rain, unless special equipment is used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.^[27][30][54] Many Illinois power plants are not equipped to burn high-sulfur coal. In 1999, Illinois produced 40.4 million tons of coal, but only 17 million tons (42%) of Illinois coal was consumed in Illinois. Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states and countries. In 2008, Illinois exported three million tons of coal, and was projected to export nine million in 2011, as demand for energy grows in places such as China, India, and elsewhere in Asia and Europe.^[120] As of 2010^[update], Illinois was ranked third in recoverable coal reserves at producing mines in the nation.^[111] Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states, while much of the coal burned for power in Illinois (21 million tons in 1998) is mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.^[118]

Mattoon was chosen as the site for the Department of Energy's FutureGen project, a 275-megawatt experimental zero emission coal-burning power plant that the DOE just gave a second round of funding. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project.^[121]

Petroleum

Illinois is a leading refiner of petroleum in the American Midwest, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 900,000 barrels per day (140,000 m³/d). However, Illinois has very limited crude oil proved reserves that account for less than 1% of the U.S. total reserves. Residential heating is 81% natural gas compared to less than 1% heating oil. Illinois is ranked 14th in oil production among states, with a daily output of approximately 28,000 barrels (4,500 m³) in 2005.^[122][123]

Nuclear power

Nuclear power arguably began in Illinois with the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor, built on the University of Chicago campus. There are six operating nuclear power plants in Illinois: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities.^[124] With the exception of the single-unit Clinton plant, each of these facilities has two reactors. Three reactors have been permanently shut down and are in various stages of decommissioning: Dresden-1 and Zion-1 and 2. Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation. Generation from its nuclear power plants accounted for 12 percent of the nation's total.^[111] In 2007, 48% of Illinois's electricity was generated using nuclear power.^[125] The Morris Operation is the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.

Wind power

Illinois has seen growing interest in the use of wind power for electrical generation.^[126] Most of Illinois was rated in 2009 as "marginal or fair" for wind energy production by the U.S. Department of Energy, with some western sections rated "good" and parts of the south rated "poor".^[127] These ratings are for wind turbines with 50-meter (160 ft) hub heights; newer wind turbines are taller, enabling them to reach stronger winds farther from the ground. As a result, more areas of Illinois have become prospective wind farm sites. As of September 2009, Illinois had 1116.06 MW of installed wind power nameplate capacity with another 741.9 MW under construction.^[128] Illinois ranked ninth among U.S. states in installed wind power capacity, and sixteenth by potential capacity.^[128] Large wind farms in Illinois include Twin Groves, Rail Splitter, EcoGrove, and Mendota Hills.^[128]

As of 2007, wind energy represented only 1.7% of Illinois's energy production, and it was estimated that wind power could provide 5–10% of the state's energy needs.^[129][130] Also, the Illinois General Assembly mandated in 2007 that by 2025, 25% of all electricity generated in Illinois is to come from renewable resources.^[131]

Biofuels

Illinois is ranked second in corn production among U.S. states, and Illinois corn is used to produce 40% of the ethanol consumed in the United States.^[110] The Archer Daniels Midland corporation in Decatur, Illinois, is the world's leading producer of ethanol from corn.

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), the world's only facility dedicated to researching the ways and means of converting corn (maize) to ethanol is located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.^[132][133]

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of the partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a $500 million biofuels research project funded by petroleum giant BP.^[134][135]

Taxes

Tax is collected by the Illinois Department of Revenue. State income tax is calculated by multiplying net income by a flat rate. In 1990, that rate was set at 3%, but in 2010, the General Assembly voted for a temporary increase in the rate to 5%; the new rate went into effect on January 1, 2011; the personal income rate partially sunset on January 1, 2015, to 3.75%, while the corporate income tax fell to 5.25%.^[136][137] Illinois failed to pass a budget from 2015 to 2017, after the 736-day budget impasse, a budget was passed in Illinois after lawmakers overturned Governor Bruce Rauner's veto; this budget raised the personal income rate to 4.95% and the corporate rate to 7%.^[138] There are two rates for state sales tax: 6.25% for general merchandise and 1% for qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances.^[139] The property tax is a major source of tax revenue for local government taxing districts. The property tax is a local—not state—tax, imposed by local government taxing districts, which include counties, townships, municipalities, school districts, and special taxation districts. The property tax in Illinois is imposed only on real property.^[27][30][54]

On May 1, 2019, the Illinois Senate voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would have stricken language from the Illinois Constitution requiring a flat state income tax, in a 73–44 vote. If approved, the amendment would have allowed the state legislature to impose a graduated income tax based on annual income. The governor, J.B. Pritzker, approved the bill on May 27, 2019. It was scheduled for a 2020 general election ballot vote^[140][141] and required 60 percent voter approval to effectively amend the state constitution.^[142] The amendment was not approved by Illinoisans, with 55.1% of voters voting "No" on approval and 44.9% voting "Yes."^[143]

As of 2017 Chicago had the highest state and local sales tax rate for a U.S. city with a populations above 200,000, at 10.250%.^[144] The state of Illinois has the second highest rate of real estate tax: 2.31%, which is second only to New Jersey at 2.44%.^[145]

Toll roads are a de facto user tax on the citizens and visitors to the state of Illinois. Illinois ranks seventh out of the 11 states with the most miles of toll roads, at 282.1 miles. Chicago ranks fourth in most expensive toll roads in America by the mile, with the Chicago Skyway charging 51.2 cents per mile.^[146] Illinois also has the 11th highest gasoline tax by state, at 37.5 cents per gallon.^[147]

Culture

Museums

Illinois has numerous museums; the greatest concentration of these are in Chicago. Several museums in Chicago are ranked as some of the best in the world. These include the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

The modern Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is the largest and most attended presidential library in the country. The Illinois State Museum boasts a collection of 13.5 million objects that tell the story of Illinois life, land, people, and art. The ISM is among only 5% of the nation's museums that are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Other historical museums in the state include the Polish Museum of America in Chicago; Magnolia Manor in Cairo; Easley Pioneer Museum in Ipava; the Elihu Benjamin Washburne; Ulysses S. Grant Homes, both in Galena; and the Chanute Air Museum, located on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul.

The Chicago metropolitan area also hosts two zoos: The Brookfield Zoo, located about ten miles west of the city center in suburban Brookfield, contains more than 2,300 animals and covers 216 acres (87 ha). The Lincoln Park Zoo is located in Lincoln Park on Chicago's North Side, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Loop. The zoo accounts for more than 35 acres (14 ha) of the park.

• Illinois Museums
• 

  Vandalia State House State Historic Site in Vandalia

• 

  The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago

• 

  Magnolia Manor is a Victorian period historic house museum in Cairo.

• 

  Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield

• 

  The Polish Museum of America in Chicago

• 

  A Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union

Music

Illinois is a leader in music education, having hosted the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference since 1946, as well being home to the Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA), one of the largest professional music educator's organizations in the country. Each summer since 2004, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents dozens of performances throughout the region. Past featured artists include the Eroica Trio and violinist David Kim.

Chicago, in the northeast corner of the state, is a major center for music^[148] in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues (greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll), and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.

The Great Migration of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to the city, resulting in Chicago blues and "Chicago-style" Dixieland jazz. Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats included Nat King Cole, Gene Ammons, Benny Goodman, and Bud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for its soul music.

In the early 1930s, Gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due to Thomas A. Dorsey's contributions at Pilgrim Baptist Church.

In the 1980s and 1990s, heavy rock, punk, and hip hop also became popular in Chicago. Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Chicago Sinfonietta.^[149]

Movies

John Hughes, who moved from Grosse Pointe to Northbrook, based many films of his in Chicago, and its suburbs. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, and all his films take place in the fictional Shermer, Illinois (the original name of Northbrook was Shermerville, and Hughes's High School, Glenbrook North High School, is on Shermer Road). Most locations in his films include Glenbrook North, the former Maine North High School, the Ben Rose House in Highland Park, and the famous Home Alone house in Winnetka, Illinois.

Sports

Major league sports

As one of the United States' major metropolises, all major sports leagues have teams headquartered in Chicago.

• Two Major League Baseball teams are located in the state. The Chicago Cubs of the National League play in the second-oldest major league stadium (Wrigley Field) and are widely known for having the longest championship drought in all of major American sport: not winning the World Series since 1908. However, this ended in 2016 when the Cubs finally won their first world series in 108 years.^[150][151] That drought finally came to an end when the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win the 2016 World Series. The Chicago White Sox of the American League won the World Series in 2005, their first since 1917. They play on the city's south side at Guaranteed Rate Field.
• The Chicago Bears football team has won nine total NFL Championships, the last occurring in Super Bowl XX on January 26, 1986.
• The Chicago Bulls of the NBA is one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world, largely as a result of the efforts of Michael Jordan, who led the team to six NBA championships in eight seasons in the 1990s.
• The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL began playing in 1926, and became a member of the Original Six once the NHL dropped to that number of teams during World War II. The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups, most recently in 2015.
• The Chicago Fire F.C. is a member of MLS and has been one of the league's most successful and best-supported clubs since its founding in 1997, winning one league and four Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups in that timespan. The team played in Bridgeview, adjacent to Chicago from 2006 to 2019. The team now plays at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Other top-level professional sports

• The Chicago Red Stars have played at the top level of U.S. women's soccer since their formation in 2009, except in the 2011 season. The team currently plays in the National Women's Soccer League, sharing a stadium with the Fire.
• The Chicago Sky have played in the Women's National Basketball Association, the sister league of the NBA, since 2006.

Minor league sports

Many minor league teams also call Illinois their home. They include:

• The Bloomington Edge of the Indoor Football League
• The Bloomington Flex of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association
• The Chicago Bandits of the NPF, a female softball league; have won four league titles, most recently in 2016
• The Chicago Red Stars of the NWSL, previously of Women's Professional Soccer League (WPS) and Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL)^[152]
• The Chicago Wolves are an AHL team playing in the suburb of Rosemont
• The Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in Sauget, Illinois
• The Kane County Cougars of the American Association
• The Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League
• The Peoria Chiefs of the High-A Central
• The Peoria Rivermen are an SPHL team
• The Rockford Aviators of the Frontier League
• The Rockford IceHogs of the AHL
• The Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League
• The Southern Illinois Miners based out of Marion in the Frontier League
• The Windy City Bulls, playing in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, of the NBA G League
• The Windy City ThunderBolts of the Frontier League

College sports

The state features 13 athletic programs that compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of U.S. college sports.

The two most prominent are the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats, both members of the Big Ten Conference and the only ones competing in one of the so-called "Power Five conferences". The Fighting Illini football team has won five national championships and three Rose Bowl Games, whereas the men's basketball team has won 17 conference seasons and played five Final Fours. Meanwhile, the Wildcats have won eight football conference championships and one Rose Bowl Game.

The Northern Illinois Huskies from DeKalb, Illinois compete in the Mid-American Conference winning four conference championships and earning a bid in the Orange Bowl along with producing Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch at quarterback. The Huskies are the state's only other team competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of NCAA football.

Four schools have football programs that compete in the second level of Division I football, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Illinois State Redbirds (Normal, adjacent to Bloomington) and Southern Illinois Salukis (representing Southern Illinois University's main campus in Carbondale) are members of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) for non-football sports and the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC). The Western Illinois Leathernecks (Macomb) are full members of the Summit League, which does not sponsor football, and also compete in the MVFC. The Eastern Illinois Panthers (Charleston) are members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).

The city of Chicago is home to four Division I programs that do not sponsor football. The DePaul Blue Demons, with main campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop, are members of the Big East Conference. The Loyola Ramblers, with their main campus straddling the Edgewater and Rogers Park community areas on the city's far north side, compete in the MVC. The UIC Flames, from the Near West Side next to the Loop, are in the Horizon League. The Chicago State Cougars, from the city's south side, compete in the Western Athletic Conference.

Finally, two non-football Division I programs are located downstate. The Bradley Braves (Peoria) are MVC members, and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars (in the Metro East region across the Mississippi River from St. Louis) compete in the OVC.

Former Chicago sports franchises

Folded teams

The city was formerly home to several other teams that either failed to survive or belonged to leagues that folded.

• The Chicago Blitz, United States Football League 1983–1984
• The Chicago Sting, North American Soccer League 1975–1984 and Major Indoor Soccer League
• The Chicago Cougars, World Hockey Association 1972–1975
• The Chicago Rockers, Continental Basketball Association
• The Chicago Skyliners, American Basketball Association 2000–01
• The Chicago Bruisers, Arena Football League 1987–1989
• The Chicago Power, National Professional Soccer League 1984–2001
• The Chicago Blaze, National Women's Basketball League
• The Chicago Machine, Major League Lacrosse
• The Chicago Whales of the Federal Baseball League, a rival league to Major League Baseball from 1914 to 1916
• The Chicago American Giants of the Negro baseball league, 1910–1952
• The Chicago Bruins of the National Basketball League, 1939–1942
• The Chicago Studebaker Flyers of the NBL, 1942–43
• The Chicago American Gears of the NBL, 1944–1947
• The Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America, 1946–1950
• The Chicago Majors of the American Basketball League, 1961–1963
• The Chicago Express of the ECHL
• The Chicago Enforcers of the XFL pro football league
• The Chicago Fire, World Football League 1974
• The Chicago Winds, World Football League 1975
• The Chicago Hustle, Women's Professional Basketball League 1978–1981
• The Chicago Mustangs, North American Soccer League 1966–1967
• The Chicago Rush, Arena Football League 2001–2013
• The Chicago Storm, American Profesional Slo-Pitch League (APSPL), 1977-1978
• The Chicago Nationwide Advertising, North American Softball League (NASL), 1980

Relocated teams

The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, who currently play in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona, played in Chicago as the Chicago Cardinals, until moving to St. Louis, Missouri after the 1959 season. An NBA expansion team known as the Chicago Packers in 1961–1962, and as the Chicago Zephyrs the following year, moved to Baltimore after the 1962–1963 season. The franchise is now known as the Washington Wizards.

Professional sports teams outside Chicago

The Peoria Chiefs are a High-A minor league baseball team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Schaumburg Boomers, Southern Illinois Miners, Gateway Grizzlies, Joliet Slammers and Windy City ThunderBolts all belong to the independent Frontier League. Additionally, the Kane County Cougars play in the American Association and the Lake County Fielders were members of the former North American League.

In addition to the Chicago Wolves, the AHL also has the Rockford IceHogs serving as the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. The second incarnation of the Peoria Rivermen plays in the SPHL.

Motor racing

Motor racing oval tracks at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, the Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero and the Gateway International Raceway in Madison, near St. Louis, have hosted NASCAR, CART, and IRL races, whereas the Sports Car Club of America, among other national and regional road racing clubs, have visited the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, the Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit and the former Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpentersville. Illinois also has several short tracks and dragstrips. The dragstrip at Gateway International Raceway and the Route 66 Raceway, which sits on the same property as the Chicagoland Speedway, both host NHRA drag races.

Golf

Illinois features several golf courses, such as Olympia Fields, Medinah, Midlothian, Cog Hill, and Conway Farms, which have often hosted the BMW Championship, Western Open, and Women's Western Open.

Also, the state has hosted 13 editions of the U.S. Open (latest at Olympia Fields in 2003), six editions of the PGA Championship (latest at Medinah in 2006), three editions of the U.S. Women's Open (latest at The Merit Club), the 2009 Solheim Cup (at Rich Harvest Farms), and the 2012 Ryder Cup (at Medinah).

The John Deere Classic is a regular PGA Tour event played in the Quad Cities since 1971, whereas the Encompass Championship is a Champions Tour event since 2013. Previously, the LPGA State Farm Classic was an LPGA Tour event from 1976 to 2011.

Parks and recreation

The Illinois state parks system began in 1908 with what is now Fort Massac State Park, becoming the first park in a system encompassing more than 60 parks and about the same number of recreational and wildlife areas.

Areas under the protection of the National Park Service include: the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor near Lockport,^[153] the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the American Discovery Trail,^[154] and the Pullman National Monument. The federal government also manages the Shawnee National Forest and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Law and politics

State government

The government of Illinois, under the Constitution of Illinois, has three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices, with the governor as chief executive. Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly. The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and lower courts.

The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature, composed of the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives and the 59-member Illinois Senate. The members of the General Assembly are elected at the beginning of each even-numbered year. The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) are the codified statutes of a general and permanent nature.^[155][156]

The executive branch is composed of six elected officers and their offices as well as numerous other departments.^[157] The six elected officers are:^[157] Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer. The government of Illinois has numerous departments, agencies, boards and commissions, but the so-called code departments provide most of the state's services.^[157][158]

The Judiciary of Illinois is the unified court system of Illinois. It consists of the Supreme Court, Appellate Court, and Circuit Courts. The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system.

The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties, townships, precincts, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose districts.^[159] The basic subdivision of Illinois are the 102 counties.^[160] Eighty-five of the 102 counties are in turn divided into townships and precincts.^[160][161] Municipal governments are the cities, villages, and incorporated towns.^[160] Some localities possess home rule, which allows them to govern themselves to a certain extent.^[162]

Party balance

Illinois is a Democratic stronghold.^[163] Historically, Illinois was a political swing state, with near-parity existing between the Republican and the Democratic parties. However, in recent elections, the Democratic Party has gained ground, and Illinois has come to be seen as a solid "blue" state in presidential campaigns.^[164][165] Votes from Chicago and most of Cook County have long been strongly Democratic. However, the "collar counties" (the suburbs surrounding Chicago's Cook County, Illinois), can be seen as moderate voting districts.^[166][167] College towns like Carbondale, Champaign, and Normal also lean Democratic.

Republicans continue to prevail in the rural areas of northern and central Illinois, as well as southern Illinois outside of East St. Louis. From 1920 until 1972, Illinois was carried by the victor of each of these 14 presidential elections.^[168] In fact, the state was long seen as a national bellwether,^[169] supporting the winner in every election in the 20th century, except for 1916 and 1976. By contrast, Illinois has trended more toward the Democratic party, and has voted for their presidential candidates in the last six elections; in 2000, George W. Bush became the first Republican to win the presidency without carrying either Illinois or Vermont. Local politician and Chicago resident Barack Obama easily won the state's 21 electoral votes in 2008, with 61.9% of the vote. In 2010, incumbent governor Pat Quinn was re-elected with 47% of the vote, while Republican Mark Kirk was elected to the Senate with 48% of the vote. In 2012, President Obama easily carried Illinois again, with 58% to Republican candidate Mitt Romney's 41%. In 2014, Republican Bruce Rauner defeated Governor Quinn 50% to 46% to become Illinois's first Republican governor in 12 years after being sworn in on January 12, 2015, while Democratic senator Dick Durbin was re-elected with 53% of the vote. In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried Illinois with 55% of the vote, and Tammy Duckworth defeated incumbent Mark Kirk 54% to 40%. George W. Bush and Donald Trump are the only Republican presidential candidates to win without carrying either Illinois or Vermont. In 2018, Democrat JB Pritzker defeated the incumbent Bruce Rauner for the governorship with 54% of the vote.

History of corruption

Politics in the state have been infamous for highly visible corruption cases, as well as for crusading reformers, such as governors Adlai Stevenson and James R. Thompson. In 2006, former governor George Ryan was convicted of racketeering and bribery, leading to a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence. In 2008, then-Governor Rod Blagojevich was served with a criminal complaint on corruption charges, stemming from allegations that he conspired to sell the vacated Senate seat left by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder. Subsequently, on December 7, 2011, Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for those charges, as well as perjury while testifying during the case, totaling 18 convictions. Blagojevich was impeached and convicted by the legislature, resulting in his removal from office. In the late 20th century, Congressman Dan Rostenkowski was imprisoned for mail fraud; former governor and federal judge Otto Kerner, Jr. was imprisoned for bribery; Secretary of State Paul Powell was investigated and found to have gained great wealth through bribes, and State Auditor of Public Accounts (Comptroller) Orville Hodge was imprisoned for embezzlement. In 1912, William Lorimer, the GOP boss of Chicago, was expelled from the U.S. Senate for bribery and in 1921, Governor Len Small was found to have defrauded the state of a million dollars.^{[30][54][170]}

U.S. presidential elections

Illinois has shown a strong presence in presidential elections. Three presidents have claimed Illinois as their political base when running for president: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and most recently Barack Obama. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but he moved to Illinois at age 21. He served in the General Assembly and represented the 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives before his election to the presidency in 1860. Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio and had a military career that precluded settling down, but on the eve of the Civil War and approaching middle age, he moved to Illinois and thus utilized the state as his home and political base when running for president. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and made Illinois his home after graduating from law school, and later represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate. He then became president in 2008, running as a candidate from his Illinois base.

Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois, in the city of Tampico, raised in Dixon, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College, outside Peoria. Reagan later moved to California during his young adulthood. He then became an actor, and later became California's Governor before being elected president.

Hillary Clinton was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and became the first woman to represent a major political party in the general election of the U.S. presidency. Clinton ran from a platform based in New York State.

African-American U.S. senators

Nine African-Americans have served as members of the United States Senate. Of which three have represented Illinois, the most of any single state: Carol Moseley-Braun,^[171] Barack Obama,^[172] and Roland Burris, who was appointed to replace Obama after his election to the presidency. Moseley-Braun was the first African-American woman to become a U.S. Senator.

Political families

Three families from Illinois have played particularly prominent roles in the Democratic Party, gaining both statewide and national fame.

Stevenson

The Stevenson family, initially rooted in central Illinois and later based in the Chicago metropolitan area, has provided four generations of Illinois officeholders.

• Adlai Stevenson I (1835–1914) was a Vice President of the United States, as well as a Congressman
• Lewis Stevenson (1868–1929), son of Adlai, served as Illinois Secretary of State.
• Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965), son of Lewis, served as Governor of Illinois and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; he was also the Democratic party's presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower.
• Adlai Stevenson III (1930–), son of Adlai II, served ten years as a United States Senator.

Daley

The Daley family's powerbase was in Chicago.

• Richard J. Daley (1902–1976) served as Mayor of Chicago from 1955 to his death.
• Richard M. Daley (1942–), son of Richard J, was Chicago's longest-serving mayor, in office from 1989 to 2011.
• William M. Daley (1948–), another son of Richard J, is a former White House Chief of Staff and has served in a variety of appointed positions.

Pritzker

The Pritzker family is based in Chicago and have played important roles in both the private and the public sectors.

• Jay Pritzker (1922–1999), co-founder of Hyatt Hotel based in Chicago.
• Penny Pritzker (born 1959), 38th United States Secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama.
• J.B. Pritzker (born 1965), current and 43rd governor of Illinois and co-founder of the Pritzker Group.

Education

Illinois State Board of education

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is autonomous of the governor and the state legislature, and administers public education in the state. Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual public schools, but the ISBE audits performance of public schools with the Illinois School Report Card. The ISBE also makes recommendations to state leaders concerning education spending and policies.

Primary and secondary schools

Education is compulsory for ages 7–17 in Illinois. Schools are commonly, but not exclusively, divided into three tiers of primary and secondary education: elementary school, middle school or junior high school, and high school. District territories are often complex in structure. Many areas in the state are actually located in two school districts—one for high school, the other for elementary and middle schools. And such districts do not necessarily share boundaries. A given high school may have several elementary districts that feed into it, yet some of those feeder districts may themselves feed into multiple high school districts.

Colleges and universities

Using the criterion established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, there are eleven "National Universities" in the state.

The University of Chicago is continuously ranked as one of the world's top ten universities on various independent university rankings, and its Booth School of Business, along with Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management consistently rank within the top five graduate business schools in the country and top ten globally. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often ranked among the best engineering schools in the world and in United States.

As of 19 August 2010^[update], six of these rank in the "first tier" among the top 500 National Universities in the nation, as determined by the U.S. News & World Report rankings: the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Loyola University Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Northern Illinois University.^[173]

Illinois also has more than twenty additional accredited four-year universities, both public and private, and dozens of small liberal arts colleges across the state. Additionally, Illinois supports 49 public community colleges in the Illinois Community College System.

School financing

Schools in Illinois are funded primarily by property taxes, based on state assessment of property values, rather than direct state contributions. Scholar Tracy Steffes has described Illinois public education as historically “inequitable,” a system where one of “the wealthiest of states” is “the stingiest in its support for education.” There have been several attempts to reform school funding in Illinois. The most notable attempt came in 1973 with the adoption of the Illinois Resource Equalizer Formula, a measure through which it was hoped funding could be collected and distributed to Illinois schools more equitably. However, opposition from affluent Illinois communities who objected to having to pay for the less well-off school districts (many of them Black majority communities, produced by redlining, white flight, and other “soft” segregation methods) resulted in the formula’s abolition in the late 1980s.^[174]

Infrastructure

Transportation

Because of its central location and its proximity to the Rust Belt and Grain Belt, Illinois is a national crossroads for air, auto, rail, and truck traffic.

Airports

From 1962 until 1998, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) was the busiest airport in the world, measured both in terms of total flights and passengers. While it was surpassed by Atlanta's Hartsfield in 1998 (as Chicago splits its air traffic between O'Hare and Midway airports, while Atlanta uses only one airport), with 59.3 million domestic passengers annually, along with 11.4 million international passengers in 2008,^[175] O'Hare consistently remains one of the two or three busiest airports globally, and in some years still ranks number one in total flights. It is a major hub for both United Airlines and American Airlines, and a major airport expansion project is currently underway. Midway Airport (MDW), which had been the busiest airport in the world at one point until it was supplanted by O'Hare as the busiest airport in 1962, is now the secondary airport in the Chicago metropolitan area and still ranks as one of the nation's busiest airports. Midway is a major hub for Southwest Airlines and services many other carriers as well. Midway served 17.3 million domestic and international passengers in 2008.^[176]

Rail

Illinois has an extensive passenger and freight rail transportation network. Chicago is a national Amtrak hub and in-state passengers are served by Amtrak's Illinois Service, featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Saluki, the Chicago to Quincy Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr, and the Chicago to St. Louis Lincoln Service. Currently there is trackwork on the Chicago–St. Louis line to bring the maximum speed up to 110 mph (180 km/h), which would reduce the trip time by an hour and a half. Nearly every North American railway meets at Chicago, making it the largest and most active rail hub in the country. Extensive commuter rail is provided in the city proper and some immediate suburbs by the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system. One of the largest suburban commuter rail system in the United States, operated by Metra, uses existing rail lines to provide direct commuter rail access for hundreds of suburbs to the city and beyond.

In addition to the state's rail lines, the Mississippi River and Illinois River provide major transportation routes for the state's agricultural interests. Lake Michigan gives Illinois access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Interstate highway system

The Interstate Highways in Illinois are all segments of the Interstate Highway System that are owned and maintained by the state.^[177]

Illinois has the distinction of having the most primary (two-digit) interstates pass through it among all the 50 states with 13. Illinois also ranks third among the fifty states with the most interstate mileage, coming in after California and Texas, which are much bigger states in area.^[178]

Major U.S. Interstate highways crossing the state include: Interstate 24 (I-24), I-39, I-41, I-55, I-57, I-64, I-70, I-72, I-74, I-80, I-88, I-90, and I-94.

U.S. highway system

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is responsible for maintaining the U.S Highways in Illinois. The system in Illinois consists of 21 primary highways.

Among the U.S. highways that pass through the state, the primary ones are: US 6, US 12, US 14, US 20, US 24, US 30, US 34, US 36, US 40, US 41, US 45, US 50, US 51, US 52, US 54, US 60, US 62, and US 67.

Gallery

• 

  Standard license plate introduced in 2017

• 

  Standard license plate 2001 to 2016

• 

  Illinois license plate design used throughout the 1980s and 1990s, displaying the Land of Lincoln slogan that has been featured on the state's plates since 1954

See also

• Index of Illinois-related articles
• List of people from Illinois
• Outline of Illinois

References

Further reading

External links

• Official website
• Geographic data related to Illinois at OpenStreetMap
• Illinois Office of Tourism
• Illinois - State Energy Profile Overview U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
• State Fact Sheets: Illinois USDA's Economic Research Service
• USGS Central Midwest Water Science Center

Preceded by Mississippi

List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union Admitted on December 3, 1818 (21st)

Succeeded by Alabama

Coordinates: 40°00′01″N 89°15′01″W / 40.00032°N 89.25037°W / 40.00032; -89.25037 (State of Illinois)