New Census Data Shows All Villages In New Trier Township Growing

NEW TRIER TOWNSHIP, IL — New census data show the population of New Trier Township and each of the villages within it added residents in the past decade.

As a whole, the township's population grew by 3.5 percent, with 1,947 additional residents in 2020 compared to 2010.

Wilmette added 1,083 residents, a growth rate of 4 percent, as the population rose to 28,170.

Winnetka's population increased by 4.6 percent to 12,744, with 557 more residents than the previous census.

Northfield grew by 6.1 percent, with an additional 331 residents bringing the population to 5,751.

Glencoe's population increased by 126, or 1.4 percent, as it reported 8,849 residents.

And in Kenilworth, the population of 2,514 represented a one-person increase compared to a decade earlier.

Cook County gained 80,866 people since the last census, an increase of 1.6 percent. It was one of the 15 counties in the state where the population did not shrink, according to the largest set of 2020 data yet released from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Population trends in Illinois mirror those of the nation as a whole during the past decade. More urban areas are growing. Rural and less densely populated areas are growing slower or shrinking.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 53 percent of the nation's counties lost residents, but 81 percent of metropolitan areas grew during the past 10 years.

Every county in the Chicago area added population, with Kendall, Will, DuPage and Lake counties' population rising at the highest rate. Kane and McHenry counties grew the slowest.

Illinois was one of three states — along with Mississippi and West Virginia — to lose population during the past 10 years, recording 18,124 fewer residents in 2020 than in 2010.

But Chicago remains the nation's third largest city, at least for the moment. The population of Houston is projected to eventually surpass it. But the sprawling 627-square-mile Texan city still trailed Chicago by about 442,000 residents.

Although Chicago lost almost 7 percent of its population in the decade leading up to the 2010 census, the city grew by 1.9 percent during the past decade, adding nearly 51,000 additional residents.

Still, that was the slowest growth rate and smallest population growth of any of the 10 largest U.S. cities.

Aurora is the second largest city in Illinois, with a population of 180,542. The city lost more than 17,000 residents in the last decade. Joliet, the third largest, grew by 2 percent to reach 150,362 residents.

Naperville added more than 5 percent to reach a population of 149,540, the state's fourth-largest, and Rockford lost nearly 3 percent of its population, going from the third largest city in the state in 2010 to the fifth largest in 2020.

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Information released Thursday was originally due to be made public in the spring, but issues associated with the coronavirus pandemic led to delays.

The data will be used to redraw congressional districts ahead of next year's elections. Illinois is one of seven states that will lose a seat.

In a game of partisan musical chairs, the super-majority of Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly will seek to enact new maps that cuts one of the congressional delegation's five Republicans rather than one of its 13 Democrats from the mix when the state is reduced to 17 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the midterms.

But the latest census data will not be used to redraw state legislative districts in Illinois. In a party-line vote in May, Democratic lawmakers in Springfield approved new House and Senate district maps.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker had pledged to veto partisan maps. But in June he signed into law the new district boundaries, which relied on estimates from the American Communities Survey instead of the full 2020 Census Redistricting Data.

Related: Illinois Losing Congressional Seat With 2020 Census Apportionment