Census estimates show suburbs rebounding from previous population declines
For years, the U.S. Census Bureau reported declining population figures for many Chicago area suburbs, but new estimates released late last week show most are now regaining residents.
The new population estimates show Cook County and the five collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will are up a combined 0.8% in population from 2023 to 2024, adding nearly 64,000 residents during that time span.
“Nationally, this represents the combined effects of international and domestic migration,” said Matt Erickson, a census bureau survey statistician. “A large number of the major cities had population increases this year.”
Chicago recorded an increase of more than 22,000 residents between 2023 and 2024, the city’s first increase since the 2020 census figures were released.
The urban increase helped feed suburban population growth as well. Cook County had the seventh highest total population growth nationally in the new estimates with more than 40,000 new residents, census figures show.
| County | 2023 population | 2024 population | Growth | % change |
| Cook | 5,142,522 | 5,182,617 | 40,095 | 0.78% |
| DuPage | 929,180 | 937,142 | 7,962 | 0.86% |
| Kane | 517,241 | 520,997 | 3,756 | 0.73% |
| Lake | 714,207 | 718,604 | 4,397 | 0.62% |
| McHenry | 313,435 | 315,959 | 2,524 | 0.81% |
| Will | 703,383 | 708,583 | 5,200 | 0.74% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | ||||
In suburban Cook County, towns like Mount Prospect and Schaumburg are outpacing countywide growth estimates, posting 1.3% and 1% population hikes from 2023 to 2024.
“I think the census bureau is finally catching up to the increased housing stock we’ve got here,” said Mount Prospect Village Manager Michael Cassady.
In Kane County, St. Charles is up more than 1.9% from 2023 and Hampshire leads all municipalities in Illinois with a population above 1,000, with a near 9.2% increase year-to-year, census figures show.
“In 2008, we had a lot of inventory that wasn’t selling and now we have the opposite problem,” said Hampshire Village President Mike Reid Jr. “We were ready to build because we’d had properties zoned and annexed.”
Reid said the village issued 49 building permits in 2021 and more than tripled the number to 167 in 2024. The village also commissioned a special census to capture the true population, which helps secure additional state revenues that are based on population.
That census project was slowed by a federal hiring freeze, but Reid said census officials recently contacted the village about starting the process in September.
Elsewhere in the suburbs, Naperville posted a 1.3% increase between 2023 and 2024. The current population of the city is estimated at 153,124, which would make it the third largest municipality in Illinois behind Chicago and Aurora, overtaking Joliet for the first time.
Mundelein posted a nearly 1.9% bump over the past year, adding an estimated 600-plus new residents in 2024, the census figures show. By comparison, Lake County had the lowest countywide population increase among the suburban counties at 0.6%.
Erickson said the census bureau takes new residential development in towns into consideration when figuring the annual population estimates. Many established towns like Mount Prospect and Mundelein are adding multifamily properties to the local housing stock.
South Elgin also saw a significant spike in population figures from 2023 to 2024. Village Administrator Steve Super believes a lot of factors are contributing to population realignment in the current estimates.
“I think there was an undercount in a lot of suburbs during the last census,” he said. “I don’t know that we were undercounted, but we’ve definitely been adding since then.”