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Chicago is the center of a large metropolitan area spreading across three states, from Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the north to Gary, Indiana, in the southeast. The population of the consolidated metropolitan statistical area increased from 8,115,000 in 1980 to 8,240,000 in 1990. It reached 9,157,500 in 2000. The percentage of minorities is lower in the metropolitan area than in the city. Blacks account for only about one in five in the metropolitan region as a whole, and Hispanics represent approximately one in nine residents. While the proportion of Hispanics is growing in the metropolitan area, black presence has remained mostly unchanged.

Chicago contains the headquarters of numerous corporations and is an important wholesale market for grain, machine tools, produce, fish, and flowers. The Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are among the world’s largest commodities markets and have led in the development of futures trading and related concepts. The city has long been an important convention and trade-show center, with numerous hotels and extensive exhibition facilities. The increasing importance of this industry has made it necessary to renovate and enlarge several facilities, including the McCormick Place (built in 1960), a multipurpose facility on Lake Michigan and the largest trade-show facility in North America.

The Chicago River divides the city into three broad sections, known traditionally as the North, West, and South sides. The North Side is largely residential, interspersed with industry. The West Side generally is a lower-income residential area and contains numerous industrial, railroad, and wholesale-produce facilities. The South Side occupies almost half the city and contains diverse residential neighborhoods, ranging from decayed tenement districts to areas of modest detached houses. The South Side also incorporates the heavily industrialized Calumet district, which includes an extensive port area.

Chicago has one of the world’s most beautiful lakefronts. With the exception of a few miles of industry on its southern extremity, virtually the entire lakefront is devoted to recreational uses, with beaches, museums, harbors, and parks. The lakefront parks include three of the city’s most important: Grant Park, near downtown; Lincoln Park, to the north; and Jackson Park to the south.

The downtown area, known locally as the Loop (from the fact that it is encircled by elevated railway tracks), has been undergoing rapid change and expansion. It is an important retail and entertainment district, although these industries are spreading, especially to the Michigan Avenue area north of downtown and to the growing suburbs. The decline in manufacturing in the downtown area is offset by the continuing construction of tall office buildings and, to a lesser extent, of residential buildings.

Chicago has one of the largest public school systems in the United States. The Chicago Board of Education administers the system in a centralized fashion; in recent years it has been experimenting with local school councils as a means of partial devolution of authority. These councils, established in 1989, have authority in several areas, including the ability to approve budgets and curriculum. In addition, Chicago has many private schools, including large parochial systems maintained by the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches. Chicago is a center of higher education, with numerous colleges and universities. The University of Chicago (1891) was in 1942 the site of the world’s first controlled nuclear chain reaction. Among the other schools of higher learning are Northwestern University (1851), with campuses in both Chicago and nearby Evanston; the Illinois Institute of Technology (1890); Roosevelt University (1945); Loyola University of Chicago (1870); DePaul University (1898); Chicago State University (1867); Northeastern Illinois University (1961); and the University of Illinois at Chicago (1965).

Chicago contains many museums. These include the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum; the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the country’s largest art museums; the Field Museum; and the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the world’s largest, all of which are in the Grant Park area. In Hyde Park are the Oriental Institute Museum, which contains a collection of antiquities from the Middle East; the Du Sable Museum of African-American History; and the Museum of Science and Industry. In Lincoln Park are the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Historical Society; the latter is known for its material on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War (1861-1865). Also in the city is the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Harold Washington Library Center is the headquarters of the Chicago Public Library. The largest municipal library building in the United States, it is named for the first black mayor of Chicago, who served from 1983 to 1987. The public library, with 79 branches, has a collection of about 6 million books, with representative collections in 35 languages and small collections in more than 300 languages. The Newberry Library is a reference library containing an important collection focused on the humanities, including holdings on Native Americans, the history of printing, and cartography. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1891, is considered one of the finest in the world. The city’s opera company is The Lyric Opera, founded in 1954.

Chicago is also home to many professional sports teams. The Chicago Cubs baseball team plays at Wrigley Field; the Chicago White Sox baseball team, at Comiskey Park; the Chicago Bears football team, at Soldier Field; and the Chicago Blackhawks ice hockey and Chicago Bulls basketball teams, at the United Center, a new facility that opened in 1994.

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