Census data are sounding a warning signal that Chicago and Illinois policy leaders don’t necessarily want to hear.

Unlike Illinois, Pennsylvania has actually recovered the number of jobs it lost during the Great Recession, and now has 40,000 more jobs than it had at its pre-recession peak. Illinois, on the other hand, still has 90,000 fewer jobs than it had before the recession, the worst jobs recovery in the U.S.

Internal Revenue Service migration data for the 2010 tax year shows that Illinois continues to lose people to other states. Illinois had a net loss of 49,000 residents to other states, along with a net loss of $1.9 billion in personal income. Not only did Illinois lose more people than it gained, but the state also...

Why do moving companies love Illinois politicians? Because they keep a heavy traffic flow moving out of Illinois. At the end of each year, moving companies release annual migration trends data based upon a compilation of customers who move in and out of different states. United Van Lines is the largest mover in the country,...

The story of Illinois’ steady out-migration problem is well known, but just where are Illinoisans moving to? Is the outflow driven entirely by retirees and beach-goers moving to Florida? Not according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which just released its 2012 American Community Survey of state-to-state migration flow data. These data use census surveys to...

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that Illinois had the sixth-lowest population growth in the nation in 2013. The state’s population growth was just 0.11 percent, adding only 14,000 people to its population of nearly 13 million people. Other large states such as Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas grew seven to 13 times faster than...

The state of Illinois has been experiencing net out-migration for the last decade. That is, the number of people choosing to leave the state is outpacing the number of people moving to Illinois. Illinois had the eighth-lowest population growth in the nation between 2002 and 2012. And compared with its neighbors, Illinois’ population growth is...