President Preckwinkle Launches Interactive 2010-2020 Cook County Demographics Map

Mon, 11/22/2021 - 12:00

President Preckwinkle today announced the launch of the Cook County 2020 Census Demographics App. The interactive map makes it easier to identify population shifts and demographic changes between 2010 and 2020 in Cook County.

The 2020 Census Demographics App includes data such as age or race, highlighting how the population of a given area has changed over ten years. Visitors can see the whole county or individual county commissioner districts, townships or zip codes. Nearly every part (98%) of Cook County became more diverse between 2010 and 2020.

"Understanding how Cook County is changing over the years is crucial for policy making," said Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. "These maps can help us understand our constituencies and design programs that meet the evolving needs of our residents."

"Cook County plays a crucial role in facilitating communities’ data utilization. The Cook County 2020 Census Demographics application was created to empower everyday residents to use US Census data to understand how their communities have changed over the last 10 years. It’s my hope that this application can serve as a resource to drive collaboration and community engagement around government policy and decision making,” stated Brittaney Harkness, Geographic Information Systems Developer for the Cook County Bureau of Technology.

Even though certain areas of Cook County lost population, there was an overall gain in the number of residents by 1.6% from 2010 to 2020. Different racial and ethnic groups had gains and losses in population. White/Caucasian and Black/African-American groups saw decreases in population while Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Other, or Two or More racial groups had the largest gains, with the Other group increasing 165%.

“The variation of WHERE these changes are happening is quite clear when looking at the map,” says Todd Schuble, Geographic Information Systems Manager for the Cook County Bureau of Technology. “The real interesting question is WHY are these changes happening, but there really won’t be an answer to that question without more research and more data becoming available.”

The app is available in both Spanish and English and will work on mobile devices and computers. Cook County's Geographic Information Systems Department, within the Bureau of Technology, that built the app, will continue to update it with new types of data as the US Census Bureau makes it available in the coming months. In the future, the app will display differences in income levels, education levels and other differences.

Cook County was proactive in its Census strategy, beginning with the creation of the Complete Count Census Commission in June of 2019. Cook County devoted more than $3 million to Census outreach including grants to community organizations, marketing, education and mobilization.