Chicago, known as the "Second City", the "Windy City", and "Chi-town", is the third-largest city in population in the United States, following New York City and Los Angeles. Chicago is located in the Midwestern state of Illinois along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. When combined with its suburbs and nine surrounding counties in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, the greater metropolitan area known as Chicagoland encompasses a population of nearly 10 million people.
Growing from its 1833 founding as a frontier town of the Old Northwest into one of the world's premier cities, Chicago is ranked as one of 10 "Alpha" (most influential) world cities by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network. Chicago was the site of the world's first skyscraper, and today is the financial, transportation, and cultural capital of the Midwest. Chicago also leads the country in the number of conventions hosted annually. The city has long been known around the world as a financial, industrial, and transportation center and for its ethnic diversity. Chicago's skyscrapers, local cuisine, political traditions, and sports teams are some of its most recognized symbols. A variety of colloquial nicknames reflect Chicago's unique character.
A resident of Chicago is referred to as a Chicagoan. There is some ambiguity regarding the suburbs - some residents call themselves "Chicagoans" and identify with the central city, while others rarely deal with or visit the central city. Typically, residents of Chicago will identify themselves with one of the many neighborhoods of Chicago. For an excellent map of the neighborhoods of Chicago, see this map.
About one-third of central-city Chicagoans are Caucasian, another third African American, around a quarter Hispanic and one-tenth Asian, with small amounts of other groups filling in the remainder. Chicago also has several dozen distinct neighborhoods to match its ethnic diversity; the city is divided into 77 official community areas.
Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois at the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan. It sits on the continental divide, at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds
When Chicago was founded in the 1830s most of the early building began around the mouth of the Chicago River. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Chicago has a total area of 606.1 km2 (234.0 mi2), of which 588.3 km2 (227.1 mi2) is land and 17.8 km2 (6.9 mi2) is water. The total area is 2.94% water. The city has been built on relatively flat land; the average height of land is 579 feet (176 meters) above sea level. The city lies beside Lake Michigan and two rivers, the Chicago in downtown and the Calumet in the industrial far South Side, entirely or partially flow through Chicago. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal connects the Chicago River with the Des Plaines River, which runs to the west of the city.
People living in Chicago are called "Chicagoans." The metropolitan area is referred to as "Chicagoland" therefore the term is also sometimes applied colloquially to those living in one of the neighboring communities.
As of the 2000 census, there are 2,896,016 people, 1,061,928 households, and 632,909 families residing in the city of Chicago proper. A 2006 estimate puts the city's population at over 3 million. This encompasses about one-fifth of the entire population of the state of Illinois and 1% of the population of the United States. The population density is 4,923.0/km2 (12,750.3/mi2). There are 1,152,868 housing units at an average density of 1,959.8/km2 (5,075.8/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 36.39% Black or African American, 31.32% White, 26.02% Hispanic or Latino, 4.33% Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.64% from two or more races, 0.15% Native American, and 0.15% from other races. For changes between the 1990 and 2000 census, see .
The city itself makes up 23.3% percent of the total population of Illinois, down from a high of 44.3% in 1930.
Chicago's unique culture arises from it being a melting pot, with nearly even percentages of Caucasians and African-Americans and a sizeable Hispanic minority.
The main European ethnic groups in Chicago are the Irish, Germans, Italians and Polish. Chicago has a large Irish-American population on its South Side. Many of Chicago's politicians have come from this population, including current mayor Richard M. Daley. Chicago has the largest population of Swedish-Americans of any city in the US, numbering 123,000. After the Chicago Fire, many Swedish carpenters helped to rebuild the city, which is why it is sometimes called the city the Swedes built.
Today, Chicago has the largest ethnically Polish population outside of Poland, making it one of the most important Polonia centers. Polish food and customs have melted into the culture of the city. Chicago is also considered to be the second-largest Serbian and Lithuanian city in the world, and the third largest Greek city after Melbourne, Australia. The city also has the country's largest Assyrian population, numbering as many as 80,000 and is the location of the seat of the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV.
The Chicago Metropolitan area is also becoming a major center for Indian-Americans and South Asians. Chicago has the third largest South Asian population in the country, after New York City and San Francisco. The Devon Avenue Market on Chicago's north side is an example of this, as it is one of the largest South Asian neighborhoods in North America.
There are 1,061,928 households, of which 28.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.1% are married couples living together, 18.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% are non-families. Of all households, 32.6% are made up of individuals and 8.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.67 and the average family size is 3.50.
Of the city population, 26.2% are under the age of 18, 11.2% are from 18 to 24, 33.4% are from 25 to 44, 18.9% are from 45 to 64, and 10.3% are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there are 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.1 males. The median income for a household in the city is $38,625, and the median income for a family is $42,724. Males have a median income of $35,907 versus $30,536 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,175. Below the poverty line are 19.6% of the population and 16.6% of the families. Of the total population, 28.1% of those under the age of 18 and 15.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Chicago has been a center for commerce in the United States for most of its modern history. Today, Chicago remains the United States' second financial center with the nation's second largest central business district and third largest gross metropolitan product. In fact, Chicago's gross metropolitan product would rank 18th in the world if it were a nation-state, at approximately $380 billion.
Before it was incorporated as a town in 1833, the primary industry was the fur trade. Chicago's early explosive growth led many land speculators and enterprising individuals to the area. Situated on the Great Lakes and with so many new people settling the area, Chicago became an ideal location for shipping and receiving goods. With that, many railroads started to be built from Chicago to other parts of the country, further aiding the growth of the city. Additionally, the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal helped move goods south down the Mississippi River. In the 1840s, Chicago became the largest grain port in the world, shipping food from the Mississippi Valley region which was also growing into the largest food-producing region in the world. In 1848, Chicago built its first grain elevator, and, in 1858 there were twelve grain elevators dotting the skyline. Carl Sandburg described Chicago as a "stacker of wheat", and some would argue that the grain elevators were Chicago's first skyscrapers. In the 1850s and 1860s Chicago's pork and beef industry exploded. Great entrepreneurs such as Gustavus Swift and Philip Armour helped the area to become the largest producer of meat products in the world at the time. By 1862, Chicago had displaced Cincinnati, Ohio, as "Porkopolis". During the 1860s two factors helped this development: first, the Civil War increased the demand for food products, and Chicago's transportation network ensured that goods could be delivered quickly to soldiers all over the northern United States; and second, meat packing plants began to utilize ice. Before this time, meat production and distribution facilities, otherwise known as disassembly plants, had to shut down in the hot summer months. More operating months meant hundreds of thousands of new man-hours in which people could work. The efficiency of Chicago's meat packing industry and its disassembly plants inspired others such as Henry Ford when he developed Model-T assembly lines. Today, we consider industries such as steel, oil, and banking to be the great global market segments, but in the 1860s Chicago's pork and beef industry represented the first global industry. As the major meat companies grew in Chicago many, such as Armour, created global enterprises and communicated with divisions spread across the globe via telegraph.
Modern-day futures and commodity trading markets were pioneered in Chicago. A number of events led to this, along with Chicago's transportation systems and geographic proximity to the rest of the country. Massive amounts of goods passed through Chicago from places in the Mississippi Valley such as St. Louis, Missouri. Grain was stored in Chicago, and people began buying contracts on it. Later, people as far away as New York City began buying contracts by telegraph on the goods that would be stored in Chicago in the future. From this were established the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and the modern systems we use today for futures and commodity trading.
Chicago, and its surrounding suburbs, are home to the second largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the United States. The greater Chicago area hosts 31 members of the Fortune 500. The city of Chicago is home to 11 Fortune 500 companies, while the metropolitan area hosts a total of 21 members of the Fortune 500. Chicago also hosts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies.
Chicago, and its surrounding metropoltian area, are also home to the second largest labor pool in the United States numbering approximately 4.25 million workers.
During the mid-1700s, the Chicago area was inhabited primarily by Potawatomis, who took the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox. The first non-native settler in Chicago was Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a Haitian of African descent, who arrived in the 1770s, and whose heritage was much talked about after 1950. In 1803, the U.S. Army built Fort Dearborn; in 1812 it was destroyed in the Fort Dearborn Massacre .
Source:
ChicagoUS.com
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