Top 10 Fastest-Growing Cities In Illinois: See The List

ILLINOIS — Chicago was the fastest-growing city in Illinois by raw population increase, adding more than 50,000 residents since 2010, according to newly released 2020 census data.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released new statistics that illustrate population changes for the nation, states and communities down to the block level. The data, which shows an increase in the population of the nation’s metro areas compared to a decade ago, also shows population changes in smaller cities.

The data represents where people were living as of April 1, 2020.

Here are the top 10 fastest-growing cities by number of residents added, according to census data:

1. Chicago: 2,746,388 (+50,790)
2. Naperville: 149,540 (+7,687)
3. Champaign: 88,302 (+7,247)
4. Elgin: 114,797 (+6,609)
5. Pingree Grove: 10,365 (+5,833)
6. Plainfield: 44,762 (+5,181)
7. Yorkville: 21,533 (+4,612)
8. Schaumburg: 78,723 (+4,496)
9. Oswego: 34,585 (+4,230)
10. Glenview: 48,705 (+4,013)

The top 10 by percentage growth are:

1. Thomson (+172.88 percent)
2. Pingree Grove (+128.71 percent)
3. Volo (+109.01 percent)
4. Annapolis (+92.73 percent)
5. Kaskaskia (+50 percent)
6. Symerton (+47.13 percent)
7. Dieterich (+44.25 percent)
8. The Galna Territory (+41.78 percent)
9. Hampshire (+37.82 percent)
10. Exeter (33.85 percent)

Overall, Illinois shrank by about 18,000 residents between the 2010 and 2020 census counts, losing about a tenth of one percent of its population and one U.S. House seat in the process. Illinois was one of only three states to lose population over the last decade, with more people moving out of the state than moving in, according to the census.

Whether your community grew or shrank probably depends on where you live — in a city or a more rural community. Since the 2010 census, the population of U.S. metro areas has grown by 9 percent. Eighty-six percent of the country’s population was living in metro areas in 2020, compared to 85 percent in 2010.

Metro areas in the south and western United States saw the most growth, according to Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau.

“However, as we’ve been seeing in our annual population estimates, our nation is growing slower than it used to,” Perry said in a news release. “This decline is evident at the local level, where around 52 percent of the counties in the United States saw their 2020 census populations decrease from their 2010 census populations.”

Plenty of Illinois cities also lost population in the decade between 2010 and 2020. Here are the 10 cities that saw the biggest decrease in population, listed from highest to lowest percentage:

1. Hollowayville (-57.14 percent)
2. Junction (-56.59 percent)
3. Florence (-55.26 percent)
4. Macedonia (-52.38 percent)
5. Thebes (-52.29 percent)
6. Hillview (-51.3 percent)
7. unincorporated Lakewood Shores (-50.63 percent)
8. unincorporated West York (-42.64 percent)
9. Old Shawneetown (-41.45 percent)
10. unincorporated Goofy Ridge (-40 percent)

Here are some other interesting findings from the data:

• The largest city in the United States in 2020 remains New York, with 8.8 million people.

• The largest county in the United States in 2020 remains Los Angeles County, with over 10 million people.

• The fastest-growing U.S. metro area between the 2010 and 2020 censuses was The Villages, Florida, which grew 39 percent, from about 93,000 people to about 130,000.

• The U.S. metro areas with the largest declines in population were Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Danville, Illinois, losing 12.5 percent and 9.1 percent of their populations, respectively.

Read more about the 2020 U.S. Census results.