Illinois is a state in the United States named after the Illiniwek Indian tribe, which used to live there. The capital of Illinois is Springfield and the U.S. postal abbreviation for the state is IL.

Illinois is pronounced ill-len-NOY, or jokingly, ill-len-NWAH.

The USS Illinois was named in honor of this state.

Contents [showhide]
1 History

2 Law and Government

3 Geography

4 Economy

5 Demographics

6 Important cities and towns

7 Counties of Illinois

8 Education

8.1 Colleges and universities

9 Professional sports teams

10 State symbols

11 Miscellaneous information

12 See also

13 External links

[edit]
History
Named for the Illiniwek tribe of Native Americans, this state is known as the "Land of Lincoln," because it is where the 16th President spent his formative years. Illinois became the 21st state in 1818. Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809 out of the Northwest Territory. Previous to that, its lands were claimed by the Illinois-Wabash Company.

[edit]
Law and Government
The capital of the state is Springfield.

The current Governor of Illinois is Rod Blagojevich (a Democrat) and the U.S. Senators are Richard J. Durbin (a Democrat) and Peter G. Fitzgerald (a Republican). Senator Fitzgerald will retire when his term ends. He will be replaced by Barack Obama (Democrat), who defeated Alan Keyes (Republican), Jerry Kohn (Libertarian), and Albert Franzen, an independent (www.alfranzen.org). Keyes was selected for the Republican ticket to replace Jack Ryan (Republican), who had withdrawn from the race.

List of Illinois Governors.
[edit]
Geography
See List of Illinois counties

It is in the north central U.S. and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Wisconsin to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Indiana to the east. Illinois also borders Michigan, but only via a water boundary in Lake Michigan.

[edit]
Economy
The 1999 total gross state product for Illinois was $446 billion, placing it 4th in the nation. The per capita income was $32,259.

Illinois' agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products and wheat. Its industrial outputs are machinery, food processing, electrical equipment, chemical products, publishing, fabricated metal products, transportation equipment, petroleum and coal.

[edit]
Demographics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2003, the population of Illinois was 12,653,544. At the northern edge of the state on Lake Michigan lies Chicago, the nation's third largest city. More than half of the population of Illinois lives in and around Chicago, the leading industrial and transportation center in the region. The rest of the population lives in the smaller cities and on the farms that dot the state's gently rolling plains.

The racial makeup of the state is:

67.8% White Non-Hispanic
15.1% Black
12.3% Hispanic or Latino
3.4% Asian
0.2% American Indian
1.9% are mixed race
The top 5 ancestry groups in Illinois are German (19.6%), African-American (15.1%), Irish (12.2%), Mexican (9.2%), Polish (7.5%).

The 5 largest religious denominations in Illinois are Roman Catholic (30%), Baptist (11%), Lutheran (7%), "Christian" (7%), Methodist (6%). 16% of the population is nonreligious.

7.1% of Illinois' population were reported as under 5, 26.1% under 18, and 12.1% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

[edit]
Important cities and towns

Population > 1,000,000

Chicago
Population > 100,000

Aurora
Joliet
Naperville
Peoria
Rockford
Springfield (state capital)
Important Suburbs of Chicago

Addison
Arlington Heights
Aurora
Berwyn
Bolingbrook
Buffalo Grove
Carol Stream
Carpentersville
Cicero
Crystal Lake
Des Plaines
Downers Grove
Elgin
Elmhurst
Evanston
Glendale Heights
Glenview
Hoffman Estates
Joliet
Lemont
Mount Prospect
Naperville
Oak Lawn
Oak Park
Orland Park
Palatine
Park Ridge
Round Lake Beach
Schaumburg
Skokie
Tinley Park
Waukegan
Wheaton
Wheeling
of St. Louis

Belleville
Collinsville
East Saint Louis
Edwardsville
Granite City
O'Fallon
of Rockford

Loves Park
Machesney Park
of Peoria

East Peoria
Pekin
Other cities > 10,000 population

Champaign
Urbana
Bloomington
Normal
East Moline
Moline
Rock Island
Decatur
Alton
Kankakee
DeKalb
Danville
Quincy
Galesburg
Sterling
Peru
Freeport
Carbondale
Jacksonville
Charleston
Centralia
Ottawa
Woodstock
Herrin
Mattoon
Macomb
Streator
Lincoln
Dixon
Mount Vernon
Marion
Canton
Rantoul
Effingham
Taylorville
Morris
Murphysboro
Kewanee
Sandwich
Pontiac
Harrisburg
Braidwood
Monmouth

list of towns (http://factfinder.census.gov/bf/_lang=en_vt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1_ST7_geo_id=04000US17.html)

[edit]
Counties of Illinois

Adams
Alexander
Bond
Boone
Brown
Bureau
Calhoun
Carroll
Cass
Champaign
Christian
Clark
Clay
Clinton
Coles
Cook
Crawford
Cumberland
De Kalb
De Witt
Douglas
Du Page
Edgar
Edwards
Effingham
Fayette
Ford
Franklin
Fulton
Gallatin
Greene
Grundy
Hamilton
Hancock
Hardin
Henderson
Henry
Iroquois
Jackson
Jasper
Jefferson
Jersey
Jo Daviess
Johnson
Kane
Kankakee
Kendall
Knox
Lake
La Salle
Lawrence
Lee
Livingston
Logan
McDonough
McHenry
McLean
Macon
Macoupin
Madison
Marion
Marshall
Mason
Massac
Menard
Mercer
Monroe
Montgomery
Morgan
Moultrie
Ogle
Peoria
Perry
Piatt
Pike
Pope
Pulaski
Putnam
Randolph
Richland
Rock Island
St. Clair
Saline
Sangamon
Schuyler
Scott
Shelby
Stark
Stephenson
Tazewell
Union
Vermilion
Wabash
Warren
Washington
Wayne
White
Whiteside
Will
Williamson
Winnebago
Woodford

[edit]
Education
[edit]
Colleges and universities
Augustana College
Aurora University
Barat College
Benedictine University
Blackburn College
Bradley University
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Chicago State University
College of DuPage
Columbia College
Concordia University, River Forest
DePaul University
DeVry University, DuPage
Dominican University
East-West University
Eastern Illinois University
Elmhurst College
Erikson Institute
Eureka College
Governors State University
Greenville College
Illinois College
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois State University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Judson College
Kendall College
Knox College
Lake Forest College
Lakeview College of Nursing
Lewis University
Lincoln Christian College and Seminary
Loyola University Chicago
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
McKendree College
McMurray College
Midwestern University
Millikin University
Monmouth College
Moody Bible Institute
National University of Health Sciences
National-Louis University
North Central College
North Park College and Theological Seminary
Northeastern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University
Northwestern University
Olivet Nazarene University
Principia College
Quincy University
Robert Morris College
Rockford College
Roosevelt University
Rush University
Saint Anthony College of Nursing
St. Xavier University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Shimer College
Southern Illinois University System
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Trinity Christian College
Trinity International University
University of Chicago
University of Illinois System
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Springfield
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of St. Francis
Western Illinois University
Wheaton College

[edit]
Professional sports teams
National Football League
Chicago Bears
National Basketball Association
Chicago Bulls
National Hockey League
Chicago Blackhawks
Major League Soccer
Chicago Fire
Major League Baseball:
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Minor League baseball teams:
Peoria Chiefs
Kane County Cougars
Cook County Cheetahs
Gateway Grizzlies
Rockford RiverHawks

[edit]
State symbols
State Animal: White-tailed deer
State Bird: Cardinal
State Capital: Springfield
State Fish: Bluegill
State Flower: Purple violet
State Insect: Monarch butterfly
State Slogan: "Land of Lincoln"
State Song: "Illinois"
State Tree: White oak
[edit]
Miscellaneous information
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, lived in Illinois from a young age, and eventually served four terms in the Illinois General Assembly. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President, was born in Tampico, Illinois.

[edit]
See also
Little Egypt
Fort Sheridan, Illinois
List of ZIP Codes in Illinois
[edit]
External links
State of Illinois Web Site (http://www.illinois.gov)
Illinois News (http://www.HavenWorks.com/illinois)
US Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17000.html)
Illinois Data (http://www.illinoisdata.com/index.htm)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Illinois".

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