Chicago, the seat of Illinois's Cook County and the third largest city in the country, is the focus of a consolidated metropolitan statistical area that covers the primary metropolitan statistical areas of Gary, Indiana; Kankakee, Illinois; and Kenosha, Wisconsin. "Brawling" was the word Carl Sandburg applied to Chicago in his poem about the city. No longer the "Hog Butcher for the World," at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Chicago is still an enthusiastically combative city with a lively political life. A railroad hub in the latter half of the nineteenth century, when its population had already reached 300,000 people, Chicago became a major force in the nation's development. Today, it is a national transportation, industrial, telecommunications, and financial leader as well as a city of great architectural significance, ethnic diversity, and cultural wealth. The only inland urban area to rank with major East and West Coast metropolises, Chicago has achieved international status through the quality of its cultural institutions and its position as a world financial center.

Households: 2,836,388

In family households: 2,312,823 (381,984 male householders, 256,306 female householders)

385,877 spouses, 883,481 children (833,731 natural, 21,930 adopted, 27,820 stepchildren), 120,600 grandchildren, 67,941 brothers or sisters, 35,417 parents, 103,534 other relatives, 77,683 non-relatives In nonfamily households: 523,565 (198,968 male householders (154,195 living alone)), 224,706 female householders (191,415 living alone)), 99,891 nonrelatives In group quarters: 59,576 (27,462 institutionalized population)

Size of family households: 210,943 2-persons, 145,690 3-persons, 120,910 4-persons, 78,200 5-persons, 41,991 6-persons, 40,556 7-or-more-persons.

Size of nonfamily households: 345,610 1-person, 64,021 2-persons, 9,853 3-persons, 2,926 4-persons, 694 5-persons, 379 6-persons, 191 7-or-more-persons.

360,166 married couples with children.

244,880 single-parent households (36,614 men, 208,266 women).

64.5% of residents of Chicago speak English at home.

23.3% of residents speak Spanish at home (46% speak English very well, 23% speak English well, 20% speak English not well, 10% don't speak English at all).

7.9% of residents speak other Indo-European language at home (51% speak English very well, 26% speak English well, 19% speak English not well, 5% don't speak English at all).

3.1% of residents speak Asian or Pacific Island language at home (48% speak English very well, 27% speak English well, 18% speak English not well, 6% don't speak English at all).

1.2% of residents speak other language at home (65% speak English very well, 23% speak English well, 10% speak English not well, 2% don't speak English at all).

Foreign born population: 628,903 (21.7%)

(35.6% of them are naturalized citizens)