CHICAGO _ New census data shows the Chicago area lost population for the fourth consecutive year, continuing a statewide trend of decline that could threaten future federal funding, economic prosperity and political representation for those left behind.
The metro Chicago area lost an estimated 22,068 residents from 2017 to 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. While New York and Los Angeles also shrank, the Chicago region saw bigger decreases both in total numbers and in percent change; the area lost 0.23 percent of its population, more than twice New York's 0.10 percent.
As defined by the census, the Chicago metro area stretches from Cook County to its suburbs and includes parts of southeast Wisconsin and northwest Indiana. Despite the population decline, it is still home to nearly 9.5 million people, according to the latest estimates.
Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, declined in population for the fourth year in a row, with an estimated loss of 24,009 residents or 0.46 percent from the previous year. While Cook is still the second most populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, it's on a downward trend unseen since the early 2000s, when the county's population decreased by 144,220 over seven straight years before beginning to rise again.
Back then, the collar counties _ DuPage, Lake, McHenry, Kane and Will _ were adding hundreds of thousands of people as Cook's population dwindled. But that's no longer the case, the data show. The population growth in the collars has been slowing considerably, and the total population in the five counties actually decreased from 2017 to 2018.
Over the past eight years, the collar counties grew by 38,273 people. In an equivalent time period ending in 2007 _ just before the Great Recession _ that gain was more than 11 times as large, with 428,954 more residents calling these counties home.
There were a few pockets of growth in the area in the last year; Kendall, Kane, Will and McHenry counties all saw modest gains. But DuPage and Lake counties have each lost residents for the third year in a row, totaling 9,539 people between the two counties over that time period.
The data released Thursday includes population numbers by county and by metropolitan region only. State-by-state data came out in December and showed Illinois declining in population for the fifth year in a row, losing roughly 45,000 residents from 2017 to 2018.
While much news coverage of Illinois' population woes has focused on residents who move away, the census numbers also reflect "natural" gains or losses _ births vs. deaths _ and the number of people who arrive from other counties, states or other nations. For the Chicago area, decreasing birthrates and stagnating international migration have added to the impact of residents choosing to move elsewhere in recent years.
The census numbers on migration are expressed only in terms of net gain or loss. Cook County's net migration has been negative for at least 27 years, meaning more people moved away than moved to the area. The newest data put the current rate of net migration loss at 8.6 per 1,000 people, though the county's lowest point came in 2005 when about 13 per 1,000 more people left than came in.
In the collar counties, meanwhile, more people have left than entered in every year since 2011, reversing the previous trend.
The census numbers don't explain the many reasons why people might move out of the Chicago area _ some may have followed their employers, or graduated from school _ but in interviews with the Tribune, former residents who chose to leave gave a litany of reasons, including high taxes, government corruption, crime rates, economic instability, long commutes, an overall rise in the cost of living and the weather.
Michael Gillam and Mary Green, both originally from Ohio, loved Chicago's skyline, lakefront and restaurant scene while living in the Ravenswood neighborhood in 2015 and 2016, and then enjoyed a more suburban lifestyle for another year in Naperville in DuPage County.
Yet when it came time to put down roots, the couple moved to Houston in February 2018, seeking more affordable housing and a warmer climate in one of the fastest growing areas of the country.
"We just wanted to move somewhere where our money would stretch further," said Gillam, 29, a software developer. "The housing market here is fantastic, it's exploding. In Illinois, it seems like people are leaving."
Gillam and Green, a 33-year-old licensed practical nurse, said they grew uneasy with crime in the city as well as instability in Illinois government, particularly after experiencing a two-year state budget stalemate that ended in 2017. They're looking to buy a home and had worried that real estate in an area with a declining population would prove a bad investment and difficult to sell down the road.
While they'll return to Chicago for their wedding in summer 2021, they have no plans to do so permanently.
"No regrets at all," Gillam said. "We never looked back."
