Chicago, Illinois
| Chicago, Illinois | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Chicago
Brandon Johnson | |
| Last mayoral election: | April 4, 2023 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2027 |
| Last city council election: | April 4, 2023 |
| Next city council election: | 2027 |
| City council seats: | 50 |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 2,709,534 |
| Race: | White 50.0% African American 29.6% Asian 6.6% Native American 0.3% Pacific Islander 0.0% Two or more 2.8% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic 28.8% |
| Median household income: | $58,247 |
| High school graduation rate: | 85.1% |
| College graduation rate: | 39.5% |
| Related Chicago offices | |
| Illinois Congressional Delegation Illinois State Legislature Illinois state executive offices | |
Chicago is a city in Cook County, Illinois. The city's population was 2,746,388 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Chicago utilizes a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body, and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[1]
Mayor
The mayor serves as the city's chief executive and is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors and committee members, and overseeing the city's day-to-day operations.[2] The current Mayor of Chicago is Brandon Johnson (nonpartisan). Johnson assumed office in 2023.
City council
The Chicago City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, acquiring or selling land, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances.[3]
The Chicago City Council is made up of 50 members (called aldermen) from 50 wards. They are elected by district to four-year terms.[3]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Mayoral partisanship
Chicago has a Democratic mayor. As of March 2025, 65 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, two are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2023
The city of Chicago, Illinois, held general elections for mayor, city clerk, city treasurer, city council, and police district councils on February 28, 2023. A runoff election was scheduled for April 4, 2023. The filing deadline for this election was November 28, 2022.
2019
The city of Chicago, Illinois, held nonpartisan elections for mayor, city clerk, city treasurer, and all 50 seats on the city council on February 26, 2019. A runoff election for races in which no candidate received a majority of the vote took place on April 2, 2019. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was November 26, 2018.
2017
The city of Chicago, Illinois, held a special election for the Ward 4 seat on the city council on February 28, 2017.[4]
2015
The city of Chicago, Illinois, held nonpartisan elections for mayor and city council on February 24, 2015. A runoff election for races in which no candidate received a majority of the votes took place on April 7, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was November 24, 2014. All 50 city council seats were up for election.[5]
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for Chicago | |
|---|---|
| Chicago | |
| Population | 2,746,388 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 227 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 39% |
| Black/African American | 28.4% |
| Asian | 7.1% |
| Native American | 0.9% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| Two or more | 12% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 29.6% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 86.8% |
| College graduation rate | 43.3% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $75,134 |
| Persons below poverty level | 16.8% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal calendar years running from January 1 to December 31. Each summer, city departments begin the budget process by giving the Office of Budget Management (OBM) their projections on personnel and non-personnel needs for the coming year. The mayor and OBM then combine these figures, along with feedback from the public, to propose a budget on or before October 15. The city council holds committee and public hearings on the proposed budget. Once approved by the city council, the budget becomes the Annual Appropriation Ordinance and is officially implemented on January 1 of the following year. The city is required by state law to maintain a balanced budget.[6]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[7]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[8] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[9] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[7]
2015: Study on city's nondiscrimination laws
In July 2015, the Movement Advancement Project described Chicago, Illinois, as a city or county that prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity via ordinances that apply to public and private employers. At that time, a total of 71 of America's largest 100 cities prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, while 69 of those cities also prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. This did not include those jurisdictions that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for government employees.[22]
Nondiscrimination laws can cover a variety of areas, including public employment, private employment, housing, and public accommodations. Such laws may be enacted at the state, county, or city level.
See also
External links
- Official city website
- Office of the Mayor
- Chicago City Council
- Chicago Office of Budget and Management
- Chicago Municipal Code
Footnotes
- ↑ City of Chicago, "Chicago Government," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ City of Chicago, "Office of the Mayor," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 City of Chicago, "City Council, Your Ward & Alderman," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, "Candidate Filings for the February 28, 2017 Municipal Election," January 3, 2017
- ↑ Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, "2015 Election Calendar," accessed August 21, 2014
- ↑ City of Chicago, "2022 Budget Overview," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ CBS Chicago, "Protest Held In Chicago After Death Of George Floyd During Arrest By Minneapolis Police," May 26, 2020
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 CBS Chicago, "Mayor Lightfoot Announces Curfew From 9 p.m. To 6 a.m. ‘Until Further Notice’ Amid George Floyd Protests," May 30, 2020
- ↑ The Chicago Tribune, "How the weekend unfolded: Timeline of Chicago protests, looting and unrest," June 1, 2020
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Emanuel sues Trump's Justice Department over sanctuary city policy," August 7, 2017
- ↑ Bloomberg, "Judge Blocks Trump on Threat to Punish Sanctuary Cities," September 15, 2017
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Judge rules in city's favor on sanctuary cities, grants nationwide injunction," September 15, 2017
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Emanuel sues Trump's Justice Department over sanctuary city policy," August 7, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Trump administration toughens policy against sanctuary cities," July 25, 2017
- ↑ United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, The City of Chicago v. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Attorney General of the United States - Complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, filed August 7, 2017
- ↑ Reuters, "United States Justice Department ends Trump-era limits on grants to ‘sanctuary cities,'" April 28, 2021
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chicago Police Department, "Annual Report 2017," accessed December 14, 2018
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "Despite recent violence, Chicago is far from the U.S. ‘murder capital,’" November 13, 2018
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
 |
State of Illinois Springfield (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |