In the summer, many outdoor concerts are given in Grant Park and Millennium Park. 2012. More than half the population of the state of Illinois lives in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Chicago Bears, one of the last two remaining charter members of the National Football League (NFL), have won nine NFL Championships, including the 1985 Super BowlXX. frequency of feelings of spiritual wellbeing by metro area, Learn More: frequency of feeling spiritual peace and wellbeing, At least once a week, Once or twice a month, Seldom/never, % of adults in the Chicago metro area who feel a sense of wonder about the universe, Compare: Households with a computer, percent, 2017-2021. What would become the influential Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who was working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. [24] The city is the seat of the Evangelical Covenant Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performs at Symphony Center, and is recognized as one of the best orchestras in the world. [32][33] Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in the State of Illinois in 2013, over 10,000 same-sex couples have wed in Cook County alone.[34]. Chicago has several other contemporary and jazz dance troupes, such as the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Chicago Dance Crash. The ethnic makeup of the population is 28% Hispanic and 72% belong to non Hispanic background. The Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine is in Downers Grove. The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion; it is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". In the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Northwestern University Professor Bill Savage describes Chicago fiction as prose which tries to "capture the essence of the city, its spaces and its people". The Irish were able to assert themselves in politics due to their large population but also the fact that they knew English and that thanks to the geographic position of Ireland on the periphery of Europe they did not have ancestral ethnic rivalries. [27], The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. Map Chicago city, Illinois United States Chart View . 2.41. In each case, at least three-in-ten are evangelical Protestants (including 38% in Dallas). THE 2020 U.S. 85.4%. Winters are relatively cold and snowy. [130] A number of Chicago's public art works are by modern figurative artists. As in the rest of the state of Illinois, Chicago forms part of the Central Time Zone. Only about half of the residents in the Seattle (52%) and San Francisco (48%) metropolitan areas identify as Christians, as well as roughly six-in-ten or fewer of those living in Boston (57%) and New York (59%). Ravinia Festival, located 25 miles (40km) north of Chicago, is the summer home of the CSO, and is a favorite destination for many Chicagoans. Welcome to Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, with a population of nearlythree million people. The Near West Side holds the University of Illinois at Chicago and was once home to Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios, the site of which has been rebuilt as the global headquarters of McDonald's. In Millennium Park, the reflective Cloud Gate public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. When the Great Plains opened up for settlement in the 1830s and 1840s, many German immigrants stopped in Chicago to earn additional money before moving West to claim a homestead. Because of the dominance of the Democratic Party in Chicago, the Democratic primary vote held in the spring is generally more significant than the general elections in November for U.S. House and Illinois State seats. During the 1950s the Chinese population grew from 3,000 to 6,000. frequency of meditation by metro area, Learn More: frequency of meditation, At least once a week, Seldom/never, % of adults in the Chicago metro area who feel a sense of spiritual peace and wellbeing, Compare: It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. [213] The city has many upscale dining establishments as well as many ethnic restaurant districts. Some events which shaped the city's history have also been memorialized by art works, including the Great Northern Migration (Saar) and the centennial of statehood for Illinois. [124] Presently, the four tallest buildings in the city are Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, also a building with its own zip code), Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Aon Center (previously the Standard Oil Building), and the John Hancock Center. [90] Washington was succeeded by 6th ward Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election. Chicago is a major transportation hub in the United States. Israelis began coming to Chicago in the 1970s during a period of . [361] In some cases, these exchanges have led to further informal collaborations, such as the academic relationship between the Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and the Institute of Gerontology of Ukraine (originally of the Soviet Union), that was originally established as part of the Chicago-Kyiv sister cities program.[363]. About a third of residents of New York (33%), Los Angeles (32%) and Chicago (34%) are Catholic. [233], Chicago lays claim to a large number of regional specialties that reflect the city's ethnic and working-class roots. The city is the birthplace of house music (a popular form of electronic dance music) and industrial music, and is the site of an influential hip hop scene. As the seat of Cook County (the second-most populous U.S. county), the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world. In the forty years from 1850 to 1890, the city's population grew from slightly under 30,000 to over 1million. [9] The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than 30 years after the fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. With beaches, ice rinks and bike paths, there's no shortage of outdoor recreation for Chicagoans. In addition, Chicago is the home of satirical national news outlet, The Onion, as well as its sister pop-culture publication, The A.V. The new DW60 is the first in the United States and is the sixth tallest in the U.S.[228] Chicago was the first city in the world to ever erect a ferris wheel. [65][66] In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones. In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. A scattering of diagonal streets, many of them originally Native American trails, also cross the city (Elston, Milwaukee, Ogden, Lincoln, etc.). From 1850, when Germans constituted one-sixth of Chicago's population, until the turn of the 20th century, people of German descent constituted the largest ethnic group in the city, followed by Irish, Poles, and Swedes. [338], In May 2019, The City of Chicago announced its Chicago's Electric Shared Scooter Pilot Program, scheduled to run from June 15 to October 15. [citation needed] The record label later signed many prominent industrial acts, with the most notable being: My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, KMFDM, Front Line Assembly and Front 242. Several medical products and services companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including Baxter International, Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, and the Healthcare division of General Electric. [284] In its annual crime statistics for 2016, the Chicago Police Department reported that the city experienced a dramatic rise in gun violence, with 4,331 shooting victims. A 2017 study by Walk Score ranked Chicago the sixth-most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census,[7] it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago's Western Avenue is the longest continuous urban street in the world. On the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Religion Census is your source for religious data at the county level. Households with a computer, percent, 2017-2021. A third or more of people in each of those metropolitan areas (37% in Seattle, 35% in San Francisco and 33% in Boston) are religious nones.. An attempt was made in the early 20th century to link Chicago with New York City via the Chicago New York Electric Air Line Railroad. As of the 2007 US Census American Community Survey the largest European ancestries were:[31]. [120], Some of the United States' tallest towers are located in Chicago; Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) is the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere after One World Trade Center, and Trump International Hotel and Tower is the third tallest in the country. All other percentages (such as state-level data or data on specific demographic groups) are rounded to the nearest integer (e.g., 23%). [2] The city's population peaked in the 1950 Census, although two of the three most recent Censuses as of 2022 have shown moderate growth. [312] The district, with an enrollment exceeding 400,545 students (20132014 20th Day Enrollment), is the third-largest in the U.S.[313] On September 10, 2012, teachers for the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike for the first time since 1987 over pay, resources and other issues. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. [140][143] Most of the city's rainfall is brought by thunderstorms, averaging 38 a year. [citation needed], Chicago contains a number of large, outdoor works by well-known artists. After playing its first eight seasons at Soldier Field, the team moved to suburban Bridgeview to play at SeatGeek Stadium. A $95 million conversion of a former rail line to a 2.7-mile elevated park that extends through four vibrant, Chicago neighborhoods. Chicago's dedication to invest in better bike infrastructure made biking it safer and more comfortable for everyone in Chicago, regardless of age or ability. The Civic Opera House is home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Chicago is also home to a number of national radio shows, including Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont on Sunday evenings. Religion in Chicago, Illinois 59.9% of the people in Chicago are religious: - 3.5% are Baptist - 0.4% are Episcopalian - 38.7% are Catholic - 1.9% are Lutheran - 1.4% are Methodist - 1.2% are Pentecostal - 1.7% are Presbyterian - 0.3% are Church of Jesus Christ - 5.1% are another Christian faith - 1.1% are Judaism - 0.6% are an eastern faith Swedish Americans make up 0.9% of Chicago's population, and they number at 23,990. Religion Census is your source for religious data at the county level. It also contains the University of Chicago, ranked one of the world's top ten universities,[218] and the Museum of Science and Industry.