Happy Birthday Illinois

On Tuesday, December 3, 2019 Illinois will celebrate 201 years as the 21st state admitted to the union. To celebrate, we used State Data Lab to find fun facts about Illinois and to learn more about The Prairie State.

In 2017, Illinois spent $230 million on parks and recreation. That money went to the 475,000 acres of parks in Illinois.

The state also spent $238.89 million on natural resources that same year. Sounds like a lot? Well, Illinois has over 26,000 acres of lake and 250 miles of rivers. The largest river in the country, the Mississippi River, runs along the western edge of Illinois.

34.4 percent of Illinois' 25 and older population has a bachelor's degree. In 1867, the University of Illinois was founded in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

In 2017, 47.1 percent of households in Illinois were married-couple households. First cousins may marry in Illinois only if they are older than the age of 50 or one person can prove that they are permanently sterile. It is not legal to marry any relative closer than a first cousin.

One percent of Illinois' workforce is employed in the farming industry, either working with crops or livestock. Nearly 80 percent of the state’s land area is farmland.

There are 36 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Illinois, 10 of which are based in Chicago. The other 26 are located in the suburbs and downstate.

Half of Illinois' population is female, and the median age for female residents is 39.7 years old. The first woman elected to the state’s General Assembly was Lottie Holman O’Neill. She was elected in 1922, just one year after women won the right to vote.

You can learn more about Illinois and make your own charts using State Data Lab. And we at Truth in Accounting wish Illinois a very happy 201st birthday!

Kate Brennan is a marketing and social media intern at Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.