Driving around downtown Chicago at night highway road trip mini tour

Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the third-most populous city in the United States, following New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the fifth-most populous city in North America.

Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second-most populous U.S. county and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is one of the 40 largest urban areas in the world.

Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century, by 1860, Chicago was the youngest U.S. city to exceed a population of 100,000.