For the third time since 2014, a bipartisan group wants to amend the Illinois Constitution to affect how state legislative ...

While Illinois lost population as a whole in recent years, 15 of its 102 counties gained residents from 2020 to 2024, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau’s estimates of the ...

Those counties, now 33 in total, have voted to leave the state of Illinois. The language in the referenda involved the counties splitting off to create a new, 51st state—not joining Indiana.

Illinois has a population of almost 13 million people. About half of them live in the greater Chicago area. That gives Chicago a dominant position in Illinois state government and leads to the state's ...

Those counties, now 33 in total, have voted to leave the state of Illinois. The language in the referenda involved the counties splitting off to create a new, 51st state—not joining Indiana.

And, while the rest of Illinois has experienced very modest population growth of about 1.4%, these secessionist counties have lost a whopping 5.2% of their population.

This one-third of counties comprise only 6.6% of the Illinois population, and only 4% of the state’s economy. Per capita income in the secessionist counties is $54,381.