Illinois’s cities are shrinking:
Out of Illinois’ largest 27 cities, 17 shrank in population and 10 grew from 2013 to 2014.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shine a light on the annual growth and decline of cities across America. The Census Bureau looked at all 746 American cities with a population of more than 50,000 people, and projected their annual population changes. Unfortunately for the Land of Lincoln, the majority of Illinois cities are shrinking and come in near the bottom of the national rankings.
Only Naperville and Elgin ranked in the top 50 percent nationally for growth. The other 25 Illinois cities were clustered near the bottom of the pile, with Rockford ranking 737 out of 746 U.S. cities and Decatur ranking 744 out of 746.
The article is accompanied by a chart documenting the growth statistics of Illinois’s cities with greater than 50,000 population.
It might be that people are moving from the cities into the surrounding areas. Suburbanization isn’t just for megalopolises. But, since Illinois’s has substantial net outmigration it isn’t much of a stretch to think that people are just pulling up stakes and leaving.
When the population of a city or a state shrinks so does its tax base. Unfortunately, city budgets don’t shrink automatically to accommodate the loss of revenue. Which gets you to where a lot of Illinois cities are to day. Immigration might help if all of the new immigrants were on the books so to speak and they produced net for the cities, counties, or the state. It takes a pretty healthy income for a family of four with a mom and dad and a couple of school age kids to produce net revenue.
I just can’t understand why Cicero isn’t booming…..
I’ll bet you I-355 is in part a factor for growth in Orland Park up through Bolingbrook. I know families who attend Benet a Academy in Lisle who commute from Orland quite efficiently.