The Chicago metropolitan area and Cook County both saw slight increases in population according to the most recent estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, as international immigration outpaced domestic departures in many big cities nationwide.
The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area grew by 70,762 people — less than 1% — from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024. That was the ninth-largest numeric growth of any metropolitan area in the country. But the population of the metropolitan area was still lower than it was five years earlier because of declines during the COVID pandemic. The metro area’s population stood at 9,408,576 in 2024, down from 9,454,363 in 2020.
Cook County gained around 40,000 people between 2023 and 2024, or 0.8%, but its population remained 1.8% below its 2020 level.
“Increasingly, population growth in metro areas is being shaped by international migration,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. “While births continue to contribute to overall growth, rising net international migration is offsetting the ongoing net domestic outmigration we see in many of these areas.”
More than 51,000 immigrants have come to Chicago since 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants north to the city. The city has spent more than $600 million on housing and other services for the arrivals, prompting complaints from some residents who wanted to see the resources address chronic community problems.
Cook County remained the second largest county in the union behind Los Angeles County, with just under 5.2 million people.
The collar counties also saw modest growth between 2023 and 2024. DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will each gained slightly less than 1%. Fast-growing Kendall County gained 2.1%, and 8.6% since 2020.
Statewide, the population has dropped 0.9% since 2020, driven mainly by losses of 2% to 5% in a number of western and southern counties. Champaign County was an exception, with a significant immigrant community that has helped drive an increase of nearly 6,000 people, or 2.9%, since 2020.
The U.S. population grew by nearly 1% between 2023 and 2024, the fastest growth since 2001. That too was primarily due to immigration, which reached record highs in 2023, but has fallen to the lowest levels in 25 years amid a border crackdown and deportations ordered this year by President Donald Trump.
Most of the fastest-growing counties in the country were in the South and West, continuing a long-term trend. Harris County in Texas, Miami-Dade County in Florida and Maricopa County in Arizona had the largest growth. Shelby County in Tennessee and the city of St. Louis, Missouri, lost the most people, at more than 3,000 each.
The fastest-growing metro areas by percentage increase in the 2023-24 window were Ocala, Florida; Panama City, Florida; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Immigration is a big influence, but probably not the only factor at work, cautioned Christine Percheski, Northwestern University associate professor of sociology, and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research.
The domestic birth rate, which had been in long decline and dropped lower during COVID-19, increased slightly in 2024, both nationally and in Illinois, according to provisional numbers, Percheski said. Death rates also decreased from COVID highs, statistics showed.
“Historically, Chicago has really benefited from the talents and energy of immigrants coming to the city, but there have been times when there have been strains on resources … if there aren’t ways for people to obtain legal employment and housing,” she said. “So there certainly are some challenges now, but I’d hate to use too broad a brush to talk about immigrants as a whole.”