Chicago metropolitan area
The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as the Greater Chicago Area and Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. Encompassing 10,286 square mi (28,120Â km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hinterland, that span 14 counties across northeast Illinois, northwest Indiana, and southeast Wisconsin. The MSA had a 2020 census population of 9,618,502 and the combined statistical area which spans up to 19 counties had a population of nearly 10 million people. The Chicago area is the third largest metropolitan area in the United States and the fourth largest metropolitan area in North America and the largest within the Midwest, and the largest in the Great Lakes megalopolis. Its urban area is one of the forty largest in the world.
Image: Chicago sunrise 1
Image: Evanston, IL Aerial View
Image: Chicago at Night (28824229986)
Image: Downtown Naperville Aerial
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-most land area. Its largest urban areas include Chicago and the Metro East of Greater St. Louis, as well as Peoria, Rockford, Champaign–Urbana, and Springfield, the state's capital.
Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois
Illinois in 1718, approximate modern state area highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle
The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741 to the French mission at Kaskaskia. It was later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to celebrate U.S. victory in the Revolution
Old State Capitol: Abraham Lincoln and other area legislators were instrumental in moving the state capitol to centrally located Springfield in 1839.