Illinoisans enjoyed a larger paycheck than their Iowa counterparts for 30 years – until 2012. For the first time ever, the median household in Iowa surpassed its Illinois counterpart, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If you lined up all households in order of income, the median household would be the one in the very...

In January 2011, the governors of Wisconsin and Illinois took office for their first elected terms. They set their states on two very different paths: one that led to recovery, and one that led to further decline. Gov. Pat Quinn saw a hole in pension funding, so he raised income taxes on all Illinoisans by...

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...