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Last week at Harvard University, Gov. J.B. Pritzker denied
continued reports that Illinois’ population is shrinking,
pointing to a post enumeration survey that said the state was
undercounted by nearly 2%.
“We did a Census in 2020. Turns out, all the American Community
Survey, wrong,” Pritzker said. “We gained population in the
state of Illinois.”
The Census has Illinois’ population at 12.6 million, down from
12.8 million 10 years earlier.
After the latest report on county population trends showed 92 of
102 Illinois counties lost population, U.S. Rep. Raja
Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, sent a letter to the U.S. Census
late last month with “ongoing concerns surrounding the repeated
undercounting” of Illinois’ population.
“This latest release’s claim that Illinois’ Cook County lost
68,000 people last year appears to echo past PEP and Census data
that drove misleading narratives and rhetoric surrounding
purported population losses in Illinois which were subsequently
revealed to be unfounded by the PES,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Krishnamoorthi noted he had sent the Census multiple letters
asking about the PES showing the state was undercounted “by
hundreds of thousands.”
“As I previously noted, those PES findings not only helped to
dispel years of false narratives about Illinois’ purported
decline driven by Census Bureau products but also raised serious
questions for Illinois officials as to the reliability of the
Census Bureau’s results more broadly,” he said.
The letter also asks for when “potential adjustments” would be
made to the state’s count.
State Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said there’s not much
dispute that Illinois is not growing.
“What part of the bottom we’re at is going to always be debated,
but it isn’t like we’re in a state that has seen robust growth,
so if we lost some population, gained a little population, I
know we lost a congressional district, so I don’t think there’s
much dispute that Illinois is losing something,” Chesney said.
“To the extent of that loss, I guess the Democrats can debate
that, but that’s largely just for political popularity. That has
nothing to do with the state of Illinois and the dire need we
are for small businesses to want to come and stay here and for
our youth to want to stay here as well.”
Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and
other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of
award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning
Newsfeed out of Springfield.
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