Ford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 13,534. Its county seat is Paxton. Ford County was part of the Champaign–Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area until 2018, when the Office of Management and Budget removed the county from the area.

The Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, also known as Champaign–Urbana and Urbana–Champaign as well as Chambana (colloquially), is a metropolitan area in east-central Illinois. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the metropolitan area has a population of 236,514 as of the 2022 U.S. Census, which ranks it as the 200th largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. The area is anchored by the principal cities of Champaign and Urbana, and is home to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system.