NUMBERS CAN TELL YOU A LOT ABACOUT A CITY.
Feeling crowded? Close to 3 million people live within the 228 square miles of the City of Chicago–and we share the space with 33 million visitors a year.
More than one in five Chicago residents was born in another country. One-third of us speak a language other than English at home. And while more than 7 out of 10 Chicago adults graduated from high school, only 3 out of 10 have a college degree.
Other numbers give us a peek into our habits. Nine out of 10 Chicago adults visited a fast-food restaurant in the last month. We order domestic light beer more than regular and more than imports. And we’ve got a few problems with parking–last year the city wrote more than 3 million tickets.
Here, RedEye brings together a host of facts and figures we think give a snapshot of the city we call home.
– – –
33 MILLION
visitors a year
30,000 hotel rooms
6,500 restaurants
1,212 neighborhood taverns
83 HOTELS
32,859 parking meters
2,675,238 parking tickets written through the end of November
3,025,214 parking tickets written in 2005
50 wards
198 neighborhoods
552 parks
70 museums
200 parades a year
13,550 police officers
5,012 firefighters and paramedics
217 have been filmed in the city since 1980
47,330 fire hydrants
148,000 manholes
6,300 active taxis at any time
13,000 licensed taxi drivers
WHAT WE’RE EATING:
CHICAGO CLASSICS
1,800 hot dog stands (includes all quick-serve places, such as gyro stands, that sell hot dogs)
150 million Vienna Beef hot dogs sold annually to those hot dog stands
6 million Giordano’s pizzas sold in the chain’s 14 city locations (10 million pizzas are sold each year in Giordano’s 40 locations in the city and suburbs)
350,000 pizzas sold each year in Lou Malnati’s three city locations (the chain sells between 2.25 million and 2.5 million pizzas a year in its 24 locations in the region)
— Sources: Vienna Beef, Giordano’s, Lou Malnati’s
COMPARED TO DINERS IN OTHER MAJOR CITIES, CHICAGO-AREA EATERS ARE:
200% more likely to order a sausage sandwich
67% more likely to order stuffed or deep-dish pizza
44% more likely to order a hot dog
33% more likely to order regular cheeseburgers or BBQ ribs
–Source: NPD Group
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
In the last month:
92% of Chicago-area adults ate at a fast-food restaurant
58% ate at McDonald’s
38% ate at Burger King
36% percent ate at Subway
27% percent ate at KFC
25% ate at Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell
20% percent ate at Portillo’s
18% percent used Starbucks
10% ate at Potbelly
— Source: Scarborough Research
WHAT WE’RE DRINKING:
In the last month:
29% of Chicago-area adults age 21 and older drank a light beer
26% percent drank at least one imported beer
24% had a regular beer
6% had a microbrew
18% drank vodka
WHO LIVES HERE?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Second City has:
2,701,926 residents in the city limits
1,299,933 (48 percent) are male
1,401,993 (52 percent) are female
1,888,079 are 21 and older
26 percent are under 18 years old
33.1 the median age
37% of people older than 5 speak a language other than English at home
RACE AND ETHNICITY FOR PEOPLE REPORTING ONE RACE ALONE:
39 percent were white
36 percent were black or African-American
5 percent were Asian
20 percent were another race
2 percent reported two or more races
29 percent were Hispanic*
22% of people living in the city were born in another country
78 percent were born in America
58 percent were born in Illinois
78 percent of people 25 and older have graduated from high school
30 percent of people age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher
Total households in CHICAGO: 1,020,605
58 percent are families
34 percent are married couple families
42 percent live alone or with others unrelated to them
2.65 average household size
3.55 average family size
$59,026 mean household income
$66,512 mean family income
31,685 households make $200,000 or more
$39,449 median earnings for male full-time, year-round workers
$35,867 median earnings for female full-time, year-round workers
1,197,749 of people 16 and older are employed
34.3 minutes: mean travel time to work
293,703 take public transportation to work
63,580 walk to work
SOURCE: SCARBOROUGH RESEARCH
RedEye
