When the U.S. Census Bureau released its state population estimates for 2021 last December, Illinois’ population drop of 114,000 was the second-largest in the country on a percentage basis. Illinois lost nearly 1 percent of its population.
Now the Census has released the county-level data for 2021 and it exposes just how widespread Illinois’ population problems are. Eighty-one of the state’s 102 counties lost people in 2021.
The latest data continues a bad trend. In 2020 the bureau reported Illinois was just one of three states to shrink over the last decade (2020 vs. 2010), along with Mississippi and West Virginia. Illinois’ 18,000 population shrinkage contrasts with the massive growth of Texas (3.9 million increase) and Florida (up 2.7 million) and that of Illinois’ neighbors Indiana and Wisconsin, up 302,000 and 207,000 people, respectively.
2021 shows that Illinois is still bleeding people from every corner of the state. The state’s 81 shrinking counties lost 121,000 people, while the 21 counties that grew gained just 7,400 people.
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