Collar counties

Collar Counties
Region of Illinois

Clockwise from top left: Rialto Square Theater (Joliet), Downtown Crystal Lake, Moser Tower (Naperville), Old DuPage County Courthouse (Wheaton), Great Lakes Naval Training Station (North Chicago) and Downtown Aurora.
Country  United States
State  Illinois
Counties DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will.
Settled 1770s
Named for Their mutual proximity to and surrounding of Cook County.
Population (2012 Estimate)
 • Total 3,143,257
Time zone CST (UTC−06:00)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC−05:00)
Area code(s) 224, 331, 630, 779, 815, 847

The collar counties are the five counties of Illinois that border on Chicago's Cook County. After Cook County, they are also the next five most populous counties in the state. The collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will) are tied to Chicago economically, but like many other suburban areas in the United States, they have very different political leanings from the core city. Chicago has long been a Democratic stronghold, but the collar counties are known for being historically Republican strongholds.

While the demographics of these suburban Chicago counties are fairly typical for American metropolitan areas, the term is apparently unique to this area.[1] Also, because Chicago is so firmly entrenched in the Democratic column, and rural Downstate is so overwhelmingly Republican, the collar counties are routinely cited as being the key to any statewide election.[2][3][4] However, that conventional wisdom was challenged by the fact that in 2010 Democrat Pat Quinn became governor while winning only Cook, St. Clair, Jackson and Alexander counties.[5] All five collar counties went Republican, so the key to winning that gubernatorial election was simply winning Cook County, but by a wide enough margin to overwhelm the rest of the state.[6]

While the term is often employed in political discussions, that is not its exclusive use.[7][8] Barack Obama used the term in his speech before the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

See also

References

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