Daily Herald opinion: Economic rankings show our region in Illinois has plenty of vitality

This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Much political hay has been made over results of the 2020 Census, which had Illinois losing 18,000 people since the 2010 head count.

Republicans groused that Illinois was dying at an alarming rate and it was all the Democrats' fault.

Then two years later, the U.S. Census Bureau released a “post-enumeration survey” that indicated it's official count was off by 268,000 and that the state's population actually grew by a quarter-million people during that same period.

Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker, predictably crowed about Illinois' success.

Then came the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program report that shows Illinois' population has been on the slide since 2014, with a record 114,000 people leaving the state in 2021.

Those 114,000 people represent a tiny fraction of the state's nearly 13 million people, but it still amounts to a city the size of Elgin.

If only the Census Bureau could provide a clearer view of where things are headed, there would be less political point scoring to be done.

What is beyond dispute is that Illinois has one of the most onerous tax situations in the country.

We all know people who've left the state. We've seen corporate headquarters close.

We all probably know someone who has moved south to tax havens including Florida, Texas and Tennessee where retirement dollars stretch farther.

But is what we see in our own lives necessarily representative of the state as a whole?

What's lost in all of this is that Illinois has continued to be a strong draw for economic development.

Our Alicia Fabbre wrote this week that Site Selection, an international magazine that tracks corporate real estate and economic development, ranked four counties in our area among the Top 20 in the nation for economic development action.

It may come as no surprise that Dallas County, Texas, ranked first.

But Cook County, Illinois, tied for second, with the home of Houston.

DuPage County came in at No. 9, Kane County at 14 and Will County at 19.

Rankings were based on the number of economic development projects in each county from January 2022 to March 2023. According to the rankings, Cook had 231 projects; DuPage, 91; Kane, 52; and Will, 48.

Successful corporations don't remain that way on a “Build it and they will come” vision. They follow market and population trends, they look for strong work forces. They ensure the market is there before the silver shovels come out.

In building here, they're expressing their confidence in the viability of this area.

Perhaps the good schools and vibrant communities of our corner of Illinois are what keeps us here and keeps development coming.

To paraphrase from Mark Twain, the report of Illinois' death was an exaggeration.