Illinois - The Land of Lincoln
Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, the fifth most populous state in the United States. The Associated Press found Illinois to be the "most average state" in the country. During the days when the Europeans were first arriving in the New World, the city at Cahokia in what is now southern Illinois was the largest city north of Central Mexico. And Cahokia remained the largest city until New York City finally grew larger around 1690. By the time the American Revolution rolled around, Illinois had been all but abandoned by the descendants of the once great Mississippian culture (it's not that they left and went somewhere else, it's that they died of diseases spread among them by the European visitors of the time). The Mississippians left behind the ruins of their cities, their great burial and ceremonial mounds, their trash piles... but not much else. In 1776, Illinois was inhabited by less than 2,000 Native Americans and a handful of French trappers and villagers. The flood of Euro-Americans didn't begin until about 1810 but that flood was so fast and furious that Illinois was able to apply and be accepted into the Union as the 21st state in 1818. The great city of Chicago wasn't founded until 1830. Fully three-quarters of the citizens of Illinois live within 50 miles of downtown Chicago now.
In downtown Springfield
Largest City: Chicago
Admitted to the Union: December 3, 1818: 21st
Highest Point: Charles Mound : 1,235'
Lowest Point: Mississippi River: 279'
|Population by Age|
|18 & over||9,701,453|
|65 & over||1,609,213|
|Population by Ethnicity|
|Hispanic or Latino||2,027,578|
|Non Hispanic or Latino||10,803,054|
|Population by Race|
|Hawaiian or Pacific Islander||4,050|
|Two or more||289,982|