Chicago is an enormous city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 2,895,964 people and 868 constituent neighborhoods, Chicago is the largest community in Illinois.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Chicago is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Chicago is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Chicago who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.84%), sales jobs (10.18%), and management occupations (8.08%).

Also of interest is that Chicago has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One downside of living in Chicago, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 35.17 minutes every day commuting to work. However, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.

Chicago, like many big cities in America, has a public transportation system, but the citizens of Chicago are lucky because theirs is one of the most extensive and widely used. Many commuters choose to leave their cars at home and instead use the bus to get to and from work. In fact, for some people it is feasible to forgo car ownership entirely, avoiding the cost and headache of driving in heavy traffic. The benefits include reduced air pollution and load on the road network.

Chicago Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Chicago is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 14.96% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 25.49% of adults in Chicago have a college degree.

The per capita income in Chicago in 2000 was $20,175, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $80,700 for a family of four.

Chicago is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Chicago home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Chicago is White, followed by African-American. Chicago also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 26.03% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Chicago include Polish, Irish, German, and Italian.

Chicago also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 21.72%.

The most common language spoken in Chicago is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.