Chicago is a city and the seat of Cook County in Illinois, in the United States of America.

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States and one of the country’s leading industrial, commercial, transportation, and financial centers.

The city’s rapid growth was due in large part to its location, with ready access to markets and raw materials.

Chicago is the center of a large metropolitan area spreading across three states, from Kenosha, Wisconsin in the North to Gary, Indiana in the SouthEast.

The population of the consolidated metropolitan statistical area increased from 8,115,000 in 1980 to 8,240,000 in 1990. It reached 9,157,500 in 2000.

The percentage of minorities is lower in the metropolitan area than in the city. Blacks account for only about one in five in the metropolitan region as a whole, and Hispanics represent approximately one in nine residents.

While the proportion of Hispanics is growing in the metropolitan area, black presence has remained mostly unchanged.

Almost every ethnic group found in the United States is represented in Chicago. In 2000, more people claimed Polish ancestry in Chicago than any other ancestry, followed by Irish and German.

More than 46 percent of the more than 629,000 foreign-born people now living in Chicago entered the United States between 1990 and 2000.

Spanish and Polish are the two most common languages spoken at home other than English.