Where Exactly Does Chicago Metro End and Downstate Begin? And Why is This So Hotly Debated?

By: Reboot Illinois

Downstate Illinois is different from Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. If you weren’t sure if that was true, this passage from the Encyclopedia of Chicago might help:

Downstaters both fear and envy Chicago. Downstaters are convinced that Chicago gets “their” highway money and “their” school funds. Chicago equals big city, big city equals crime, noise, traffic, welfare, and poverty. Forgotten—except to the occasional tourist—are the architectural wonders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Lake Michigan, the exchanges that buy and sell downstate’s agricultural produce, the Art Institute, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera, the parades, festivals, and the sheer wealth and exuberance of America’s “most livable” big city.

But do you know who actually qualifies as a downstater? Where does downstate Illinois begin? And how different are northern Illinoisans from their downstate brethren?

We’ve got a fun look at some different views with this series of mapsdepicting the differences between Chicago and downstate Illinois.

At least there’s one thing all of Illinois can agree on. According to Facebook data, the favorite NFL team in the state is the Bears. And that’s true of everywhere in the state except for the counties surrounding St. Louis...that’s Rams country.

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This article appears on all Patch Chicago sites. The views expressed in this post are those of Reboot Illinois and do not reflect those of Patch or its editors.