Northern Illinois

This article is about the geographic region. For the university, seeNorthern Illinois University.For that school's athletic program, seeNorthern Illinois Huskies.

Northern Illinois
Region of Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Counties that are colored red are considered a part of the Northern Illinois region.
Country	United States
State	Illinois
Largest city	Chicago
Population	9.7 million

Northern Illinoisis a region generally covering the northern third of theU.S. stateofIllinois.The region is by far the most populous of Illinois, with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010.

Economics

Northern Illinois is dominated by the metropolitan areas ofChicago,theQuad Cities,andRockford,which contain a majority (over 75%) of Illinois' population and economic activity, including numerous Fortune 500 companies and a heavy manufacturing, commercial, retail, service, and office based economy. Much of the economic activity of the region is centered in theChicago Loop,theIllinois Technology and Research Corridor,and theGolden Corridor.However, rural sections of this region are highly productive agriculturally, and are part of theCorn Belt.The headquarters forJohn Deerefarming equipment are located inMoline.Additional smaller cities in this area includeKankakee,LaSalle-Peru,Ottawa,Freeport,Dixon,andSterling-Rock Falls,which still have predominantly manufacturing and agricultural economies. Northern Illinois is also one of the world's busiest freight railroad and truck traffic corridors.

Interstate 80 southern boundary

Interstate 80is sometimes referenced as the informal southern boundary of Northern Illinois, and is often used in weather reports as a reference point, as in "south of Interstate 80 will see sleet and rain, but north of Interstate 80 can expect mostly snow."

Interstate 88 cross section

Interstate 88(theRonald Reagan Memorial Tollway) connects the region, east–west, stretching from the Quad Cities, eastward through Sterling-Rock Falls, Dixon, DeKalb,Aurora,Naperville,and into Chicago. Northern Illinois is also the only region of the state in which there are tollways, which are run by theIllinois State Toll Highway Authority,another trait separating this region from Central and Southern Illinois.

Education

Northern Illinois University(NIU), inDeKalb,is located at the heart of Northern Illinois and is the state's second largest institute of higher education. According to the Regional History Center at NIU, their area of service to the northern portion of Illinois includes the 18 northernmost counties, excluding Cook, Grundy, Kankakee, Mercer and Rock Island Counties,which are covered by Eastern Illinois University and Western Illinois University, respectively, and University of Illinois at Chicago.

Several major colleges can be found in the Chicago area including Illinois' third largest state school, theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago,as well as theUniversity of ChicagoandNorthwestern University.Other notable schools include theIllinois Institute of Technology,Loyola University,DePaul University,Columbia College,Northeastern Illinois University,andRoosevelt University.

Several liberal arts schools such asAurora University,Lewis University,North Central College,Elmhurst University,Wheaton College,Concordia University,andNorth Park Universitydot the Metropolitan Chicago landscape. Other institutions of higher education are found in Rockford, includingRockford University,Rock Valley College,Northern Illinois University-Rockford,University of Illinois College of Medicine-Rockford,a branch ofRasmussen College,and a branch ofJudson University.Other colleges near the Quad Cities includeWestern Illinois University-Quad CitiesandAugustana College.

These schools, along with several others, help to make Northern Illinois a vibrant research area. Such significant developments in science including the creation of theAtomic Bomband theFujita Scalewere rooted in Northern Illinois institutions.

Politics

Politically, the region is quite diverse, withCook CountyandRock Island Countybeing long-time strongholds forDemocratsand north-central Illinois counties (Boone,Ogle,Lee,etc.) being reliable forRepublicans.Suburban Chicago counties such asDuPage,Kane,KendallandMcHenry Countieswere also very reliablyRepublicanuntil recently. Some counties, such asLake,WinnebagoandDeKalb,were once Republican strongholds, but are now more evenly divided. Politicians native to the area includeUlysses S. Grant,Ronald Reagan,Barack Obama,J. Dennis Hastert,Donald Rumsfeld,Hillary Clinton,and mayorsRichard J. DaleyandRichard M. Daley.

Culture

Culturally, the area is tied heavily to Chicago. Most residents of Northern Illinois tend to support Chicago teams and lean towards the Chicago media market. The major college football program in Northern Illinois is theNIU Huskies.Northern Illinois also has large fanbases for theIllinois Fighting Illini,Notre Dame Fighting Irish,Iowa Hawkeyes,and theNorthwestern Wildcats,as well Chicago's professional sports teams such asthe Sox,the Cubs,the Bears,the Blackhawks,andthe Bulls.In Central and Southern Illinois, residents are tied primarily toSt. Louis.

Regional dialects in Northern Illinois vary from those in other parts of Illinois. Surprisingly, different areas in Northern Illinois have their own independent cultures. Typically, areas west ofInterstate 39have more ties to Iowa and the Quad Cities area, as that is roughly the location of the westernmost terminus of the Chicago media area. Even dialects within Northern Illinois are different, emphasizing the above. Depending on location and ethnicity, a resident of the Chicago Metropolitan Area may have thestereotypical Chicago dialect,whereas those in more affluent areas, such as Lake County, may have a less easily pinpointed manner of speaking. Those west ofMcHenryandKanecounties have more stereotypicalMidwestern dialects,and might not be able to be distinguished from people in Iowa or Nebraska.

Depending on how close to a specific metropolitan area a county is, their culture and media reflect that of the metro area. Areas such as theOttawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Areahave a comfortable mix of culture from the Chicago area, Quad Cities area, and Peoria, perhaps due to its location in the center of the region.

Subregions

Northern Illinois is divisible into subregions.

Chicago metropolitan area

TheChicago metropolitan area,or Chicagoland, is the metropolitan area associated with the city of Chicago, Illinois, and its suburbs. It is the area that is closely linked to the city through geographic, social, economic, and cultural ties.

Chicago

Chicago(/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/or/ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the third most populous city in theUnited States,afterNew York CityandLos Angeles.With 2.7 million residents,it is the most populous city in both theU.S.stateofIllinoisand theAmerican Midwest.Its metropolitan area, sometimes calledChicagoland,is home to 9.5 million people and is thethird-largestin the United States.Chicago is theseatofCook County,although a small part of the city extends intoDuPage County.

Collar counties

The collar counties are the five counties of Illinois that border onChicago'sCook County.The collar counties (DuPage,Kane,Lake,McHenry,andWill) are tied to Chicago economically, but, like manysuburbanareas in the United States, have very different political leanings than does the core city. Chicago has long been aDemocraticstronghold, and the collar counties are known for being historically Republican strongholds.

While the demographics of these suburban Chicago counties are fairly typical for Americanmetropolitan areas,the term is apparently unique to this area.Because Chicago is so firmly entrenched in the Democratic column, and ruralDownstate Illinoisis so overwhelminglyRepublican,the collar counties are routinely cited as being the key to any statewide election.However, that conventional wisdom was challenged by the fact thatin 2010DemocratPat Quinnbecame governor while winning only Cook, St. Clair, Jackson and Alexander counties.All five collar counties went Republican, so the key to winning that gubernatorial election was simply winning Cook County, but by a wide enough margin to overwhelm the rest of the state.

While the term is perhaps most often employed in political discussions, that is not its exclusive use.Barack Obamaused the term in his speech before the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

Fox Valley

Fox Valley

TheFox Valley,also commonly known as the Fox River Valley, is asuburbanand exurban region within Illinois along the western edge of the Chicago suburbs. This region centers on the Fox River of Illinois and Wisconsin. Around 1 million people live in this area. Native American tribes that lived near the Fox River included the Potawatomi, Sac, and Fox tribes. Some of cities in the Fox River Valley are part of the rust belt. Within this region is Aurora, the second largest city in the state,Elgin,and the nearby cities of Batavia, St. Charles, and Geneva, which have been known as "the Tri-City area" since the early 20th century.

Northwestern Illinois

Northwestern Illinoisis generally considered to consist of the following area: Jo Daviess County, Carroll County, Whiteside County, Stephenson County, Winnebago County, Ogle County, and Lee County. Northwestern Illinois borders the states of Iowa to the west and Wisconsin to the north.

Rockford, Illinois, metropolitan area

TheRockford Metropolitan Statistical Area,as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of four counties in north-central Illinois, anchored by the city of Rockford. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 349,431.

Quad Cities

TheQuad Citiesis a group of five citiesstraddling theMississippi Riveron theIowa–Illinoisboundary, in theUnited States.These cities,DavenportandBettendorf(inIowa) andRock Island,Moline,andEast Moline(inIllinois), are the center of theQuad Cities Metropolitan Area,which, as of 2012, had a population estimate of 382,630 and aCSApopulation of 474,226, making it the 90th largest CSA in the nation.The Quad Cities is midway between Minneapolis and St. Louis, north and south, and Chicago and Des Moines, east and west. The area is the largest 300-mile market west of Chicago.

Counties

Northern Illinois

• Boone
• Bureau
• Carroll
• Cook
• DeKalb
• DuPage
• Grundy
• Henry
• Jo Daviess
• Kane
• Kankakee
• Kendall
• Lake
• LaSalle
• Lee
• McHenry
• Mercer
• Ogle
• Putnam
• Rock Island
• Stephenson
• Whiteside
• Will
• Winnebago