Cook County was incorporated in 1831 and named for Daniel Pope Cook, an early Illinois statesman. During the first half of the 20th century it had the absolute majority of Illinois’s population. The county is the sixth-largest in Illinois by land area and the largest by total area. It shares the state’s Lake Michigan shoreline with Lake County.
About Cook County, Illinois in brief
Cook County is the most populous county in Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County, California. As of 2019, the population was 5,150,233. Cook County was incorporated in 1831 and named for Daniel Pope Cook, an early Illinois statesman. During the first half of the 20th century it had the absolute majority of Illinois’s population. There are more than 800 local governmental units and nearly 130 municipalities located partially or wholly within Cook County. The part of the county outside of the Chicago and Evanston city limits is divided into 29 townships; these often divide or share governmental services with local municipalities. The county is the sixth-largest in Illinois by land area and the largest by total area. It shares the state’s Lake Michigan shoreline with Lake County. It is included in the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is surrounded by what are known as the five collar counties. In Cook County, the State of Illinois took advantage of its Lake Michigan access, beginning with the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848. This helped make a strong agricultural state into a central hub for moving crops and other commodities, benefitting the County and much of the state in economic terms. The population in each county and the split of agriculture compared to residential and industrial activity has changed dramatically over the intervening decades to 2020.
The County began with 10,201 people in the Census of 1840, growing steadily to 5, 150,233 people estimated for 2019 by the US Census. In 2000 Census there were 1,974,181 households, out of which 30. 9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44. 0% were married couples living together, 15. 6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35. 7% were non-families. In the county, the average household size was 2.38, and the average family size was 3.08. The median income for a household in the county was USD 45,922, with a median of USD 40,690 for a family. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90,000 for every 100 males, and 90,200 for a couple. Cook county is nearly completely developed, with little agricultural land remaining near the outer county boundaries. It has a total area of 1,635 square miles, the largest county inIllinois, of which 945 square miles is land and 690 square miles is water. It was the 54th county established in Illinois, and was named after Daniel Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history. In 1839, DuPage County was carved out of Cook County and was reduced to its current size in 1839 by the creation ofDuPage County. Cook County’s population is larger than that of 28 individual U.S. states, and the combined populations of the seven smallest states.
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This page is based on the article Cook County, Illinois published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
