A massive influx of 112,955 international migrants boosted Illinois population in 2024, new Census Bureau data shows. Buses from Texas likely grew Illinois’ population.

Illinois saw the third-highest rate of residents moving out in 2024 based on a survey by Atlas Van Lines. Jobs and taxes are among the top reasons people leave Illinois, which is also third in the nation for highest unemployment rate.

At the 1920 Census, Chicago’s population was 2.7 million, up over 516,000 in a decade. More than 100 years later, Chicago’s population is 2.66 million, a loss of 128,034 from nine straight years of decline.

Illinois continued to lose population last year, with people leaving 75% of the communities in the state. But what about your town? Did it lose or gain, and by how much?

Chicago lost the most, but communities across Illinois lost population in 2023. Three-fourths of the cities and towns lost people.

While Cook County experienced the largest decline, less-populous Illinois counties were losing people at the fastest rate last year.

Illinois’ base population total is larger than previously predicted after the U.S. Census discovered it had missed people in group quarters. But the change shouldn’t lull politicians into thinking taxes and other policies didn’t drive 364,443 people away.

Illinois is the second-most popular state to leave based on a survey of movers by United Van Lines. Illinois has also experienced nine straight years of population loss.

More Illinoisans fled for other states from July 2021-July 2022 than during any other year in recorded history, driving the state’s record population decline.

New Census Bureau data shows people moving out of Illinois continues to drive the state’s population decline. So many moved away in the year before July 2022, it was almost like Rockford disappearing.