Finding Community Information
- Find Community Profiles: IllinoisThe Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity provides an interactive platform to search for community demographics and information by city. Demographics include population, employment by industry, income, and housing.
- Department of Commerce Community ServicesThe Illinois Department of Commerce administers several programs and services that are designed to strengthen Illinois communities, improve energy efficiency, build neighborhoods, and create opportunities, including: Rental assistance and housing rehabilitation; Utility bill assistance and home weatherization services; Infrastructure improvements for communities and economic development; Energy efficiency services for public buildings and low-income housing; Emergency services due to disasters and temporary poverty situations.
- Illinois Office of TourismAccess economic impact information including economic impact of Illinois domestic tourism, economic impact of travel on Illinois counties, and leisure visitor profiles for the State of Illinois and City of Chicago. (To access these reports, you need to scroll down about a third of the way on the Explore Illinois homepage).
- Databases: Illinois State ArchivesAccess a variety of archival databases including databases of Illinois Veterans, and databases with a variety of death records, marriage records, select local government records and case files, Illinois Servitude and Emancipation records, public domain land tract sales, and the physicians database.
- State Government HomepagesA list of all 50 state's websites. Each state website can provide information for residents, visitors, business, as well as specific government information on state departments.
- U.S. Census DataExplore census data including data profiles, maps and visualizations, and industry and NAICS codes.
- American Community Survey Data ProfilesData Profiles have the most frequently requested social, economic, housing, and demographic data. Each of these four subject areas is a separate data profile. The data profiles summarize the data for a single geographic area, both numbers and percent, to cover the most basic data on all topics.
- USA Towns in ProfileType in the name of a city or town to view a profile using the latest 5-year estimates from the American Community Survey, with state comparisons
- American Communities Project: American Communities ReportA combined social science/journalism effort based at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, the ACP uses a vast array of data – from election results and economic numbers to consumer survey and polling – to break communities into different types for analysis. The primary point: Even in the age of the Web, people in different places experience the world very differently. Working with academics, the ACP used a wide range of different factors – everything from income to race and ethnicity to education to religious affiliation – and a clustering technique to identify 15 types of counties, everything from Big Cities to Aging Farmlands. It has mapped those types to show where the country’s political, socio-economic and cultural fissures are.
Finding Demographic Data
- U.S. Census DataExplore census data including data profiles, maps and visualizations, and industry and NAICS codes.
- County and City Databook: 2007Population information detailed by states, counties, cities, and places. Includes maps.
- U.S. Census Data Tables and Mapping FilesThe National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years from 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks.
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFactsSearch QuickFacts for city, county, and state demographic data.
- American Communities Project: American Communities ReportA combined social science/journalism effort based at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, the ACP uses a vast array of data – from election results and economic numbers to consumer survey and polling – to break communities into different types for analysis. The primary point: Even in the age of the Web, people in different places experience the world very differently. Working with academics, the ACP used a wide range of different factors – everything from income to race and ethnicity to education to religious affiliation – and a clustering technique to identify 15 types of counties, everything from Big Cities to Aging Farmlands. It has mapped those types to show where the country’s political, socio-economic and cultural fissures are.
