When the U.S. Census Bureau released its state population estimates for 2021 last December, Illinois’ population drop of 114,000 was the second-largest in the country on a percentage basis. Illinois lost nearly 1 percent of its population.
Now the Census has released the county-level data for 2021 and it exposes just how widespread Illinois’ population problems are. Eighty-one of the state’s 102 counties lost people in 2021.
The latest data continues a bad trend. In 2020 the bureau reported Illinois was just one of three states to shrink over the last decade (2020 vs. 2010), along with Mississippi and West Virginia. Illinois’ 18,000 population shrinkage contrasts with the massive growth of Texas (3.9 million increase) and Florida (up 2.7 million) and that of Illinois’ neighbors Indiana and Wisconsin, up 302,000 and 207,000 people, respectively.
2021 shows that Illinois is still bleeding people from every corner of the state. The state’s 81 shrinking counties lost 121,000 people, while the 21 counties that grew gained just 7,400 people.
Biggest winners and losers
The state’s biggest loser in 2021 was Cook County. It lost nearly 90,000 people, the 3rd-biggest loss of any county in the nation behind Los Angeles County and New York County.
DuPage County was next, losing over 6,000 in population. St. Clair, Lake and Peoria counties rounded out the top five losers.
The biggest winner was Kendall County, which gained a little over 2,500 people. McHenry, Will, Grundy and Champaign were next. Each gained less than 1,500 people.
On a regional basis, Cook County was the biggest loser by far with a 1.7 percent decline in total population over the year. The Collar counties were a mixed bag, with Kane, Lake and DuPage counties registering losses and only Will and McHenry gaining. That’s unusual, as the Collar counties usually all gain residents from those fleeing Cook County.
Meanwhile, downstate counties lost a total 18,000 people, a 0.4 percent loss in population over the year.
Any way you cut it, 2021 was a terrible year for Illinois. It's impossible to know just how much shrinkage was driven by Illinois’ draconian and heavy-handed Covid policies, but what we do know is that Illinois lawmakers have made no effort to make Illinois more livable.