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Immigration-Driven Population Growth Is Taking Its Toll On Illinois

In the last ten years, one million new residents settled in the state—the equivalent of adding two Tucsons to the state. More than half of these new residents were immigrants. This large-scale population growth is bringing traffic, pollution, overcrowded schools, and lack of affordable housing to the state, decreasing quality of life and straining natural resources.

Population Growth

Illinois, the fifth most populous state in the U.S., increased by nine percent, or almost one million people, between 1990 and 2000. This was the ninth largest numerical increase in the country, bringing Illinois’s population to 3.4 million people.

Cook County, with 5.4 million people, is the second most populous county nationwide, second only to Los Angeles.2 The Chicago-Gary-Kenosha area, with 9.2 million people, is the third largest metropolitan area in the country and had the seventh largest numerical increase in the country during the 1990s.3

Illinois’s foreign-born population is the fifth largest in the country, at over 1.5 million. Illinois gained an additional 580,000 immigrants during the 1990s, a 61 percent increase.

The increase in the foreign-born population during the 1990s accounted for 58 percent of the state’s overall population increase during the decade (not including the impact of children born to immigrants). Foreign-born residents now account for 12 percent of the total state population. About 2.5 million people in Illinois are immigrants or the children of immigrants, one-fifth percent of the state’s population.4

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