Peoria Standard

In a June 15 Facebook post, Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) commented on the trend of people leaving Illinois.

“The more burdens we put on residents and job creators, the more we push people away from our state," he said. "If we focused on making Illinois an affordable place to call home, we could make this state a destination for growth once again.”

In his Facebook post, Spain shared a link to a Wirepoints story focused on where people are going when they leave Illinois. In the article, Wirepoints founders Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner point out claims that they claim are myths. 

They said the beliefs that Illinois isn’t losing people to other states, Illinois is only losing retirees to sunny states, and  (population loss) is the same with our neighbors, are myths.

For example, the article points out that that Illinois lost more than 140,000 people to domestic migration, while Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri gained residents.

An Illinois Policy article dated May 17 looked at Illinois' population decline. It read, in part: “Population decline in Illinois is spreading, now affecting more than 85% of communities throughout the state and hitting communities of all sizes. There were 1,108 of Illinois' 1,296 incorporated places that lost population in 2022, according to data released May 18 by the U.S. Census Bureau.” The article also noted that population decline didn’t hit rural communities as hard as larger cities. 

“Rural areas actually experienced the slowest rates of population decline in 2022, although it should be noted the rate of population decline in Illinois cities with populations above 100,000 would be -4.7 per 1,000 residents had it not been for the large population decline in Chicago," the article said. "Despite population decline affecting the overwhelming majority of Illinois communities, the state’s shrinking population is disproportionately concentrated in Chicago.”

A June 14 article from The Center Square said that Census data refutes Pritzker's claims that the state is growing. 

“We did a Census in 2020. Turns out, all the American Community Survey, (is) wrong,” Pritzker said. “We gained population in the state of Illinois.” 

The article also noted that corporations have left Illinois, and Census data showed that 81 of Illinois' 102 counties shrank in 2022 and the state lost a seat in Congress.