Cook County Illinois Real Estate

Cook County website

Chicago-Cook County, located along 86km (33 miles) of Lake Michigan shoreline in the state of Illinois, is home to the city of Chicago and 135 suburban towns. It is the second largest county in the U.S. and North America's most ethnically diverse region where 106 languages are spoken and one million residents are born outside the U.S.

Global Economy

The Chicago Metropolis is one of the world's largest and most diversified economies equivalent to the 18th largest nation (larger than Argentina, Switzerland, Russia, Taiwan or the State of Michigan) with a Gross Regional Product of $333 billion.

Since 1990, Chicago's economy has had an average annual growth of nearly 6% (grown more than $145 billion)

Chicago-Cook's strength and core competitive strategy is global emergence through economic diversification and social diversity.

Quality of Life

Illinois has one of the lowest personal income tax rates in the nation - a flat 3%. This contrasts with marginal rates in other states that are typically twice as high (including 7% in New York State and 9.3% in California).

Wealth of Chicago area households is 21.5% above the national average. This is reflected in high disposable income, helping to make the region a lively arts, entertainment and recreation environment.

The Chicago area has more foreign consular offices - 63 - than any other American city outside Washington, D.C. Chicago Metropolis is also home to 1 million foreign-born residents and 116 foreign media outlets (television, radio, newspapers).

Chicago Metropolis offers world-renowned museums and theatres, professional sports, two major zoos, the world's largest indoor aquarium, and 283 golf courses. There are 292 square miles (756 square kilometers) of parks and recreational areas open to the public.

Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center, housing more than 9 million items, is the world's largest public library building.

Market Access

Chicago handles more air passenger traffic than any other city in the world - 86 million passengers in 1999. Thirty-two international business carriers provide non-stop service to 60 international business capitals.

Chicago is the world's business meeting place with more trade shows, conventions, and corporate meetings than any other city in the world. Chicago has the second largest cluster of national trade associations in the U.S.

Chicago is the major telecommunications hub in North America with the world's largest Internet exchange point (more than 7 terabytes per day) and the world's only interconnection point for international advanced networks.

Chicago is the nation's busiest rail hub and the world's leading intermodal container port (12.4 million units of freight vs. 6 million for Los Angeles and 3 million for New York) with the only 50/50 Asia/Europe port in the U.S.

The Chicago Metropolis has more than 200 truck terminals with at least 41700 outbound truckloads a day and more than 36000 outbound rail carloads daily on 37 routes. Over 50% of the North American industrial economy is within one day's truck delivery.

94 of the Fortune 100 and 35 of Fortune 500 have a presence in Chicago-Cook County.

The Chicago Metropolis accounts for 18% of all U.S. machine tool employment, 17% of gasket manufacturing, 12% of pharmaceutical employment and 10% of periodicals (magazines and journals) employment.

Human Capital

The Chicago Metropolis has a workforce of 4.2 million

Chicago created more jobs than New York, Los Angeles and Boston combined from 1990 to 2000. Chicago added 250% (+439400) more private jobs than New York (+173500) and Los Angeles (-65400).

The Chicago Metropolis has 639500 manufacturing workers (400000 precision production workers) with the largest manufacturing GRP in the nation ($60 billion).

Chicago has the most computer programmers (31660) in the U.S. (235% more than Silicon Valley).

There are on average 200000 available workers in the Chicago Metropolis.

Chicago is an international leader in the trading of commodities, stock options, currency, and interest rate futures, with 50000 direct jobs and 100000 indirect jobs.

Seven of the top 34 digital consulting houses is headquartered in the Chicago Metropolis (3 in NYC and 0 in LA) employing more than 17000 people.

(Above extracted from 2002 Chicago-Cook Business Center.)

Click on the Cook County Map to learn more about each city.
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