Cook County

List of all cities and towns in Cook County

Cook County is the most populated county in the United States, and the second-most populous county in the world, behind Los Angeles County, California.

Cook County is home to more than 40% of all Illinois citizens.

The population was 5,275,541 in 2020. Chicago, the most populous city in Illinois and the third most populous metropolis in the United States, serves as its county seat.

The county is located in the heart of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Cook County was made a county in 1831. It was named for Daniel Pope Cook, who was a politician in Illinois in the early 1800s. Its current borders were set in 1839.

Within a century, the county went from a trading post village with just over 600 people to a city with four million people, which was bigger than Paris during the Great Depression.

During the first half of the 20th century, it was home to almost everyone who lived in Illinois.

There are more than 800 local government units and almost 130 municipalities that are all or mostly in Cook County.

Chicago is the biggest of these, and it is also the county seat. About 54% of the people who live in the county live in the city.

There are 29 townships in the part of the county that is outside of Chicago and Evanston.

These townships often share or split government services with nearby cities. In 1902, Chicago got rid of its townships, but they are still around for assessing real estate.

The county has a total area of 1,635 square miles (4,230 km2), of which 945 square miles (2,450 km2) is land and 690 square miles (1,800 km2) (42.2%) is water, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Here is a list of cities, towns, places, and villages in Cook County, Illinois: