Illinois, USA

Illinois is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Wisconsin to the north, Indiana to the east, Kentucky to the southeast, Missouri and Iowa to the west across the Mississippi River, and Michigan by a short water boundary in Lake Michigan. Springfield is the state capital, while Chicago is the largest city and one of the nation’s principal economic and transportation hubs. Illinois stretches from the urbanized shores of Lake Michigan in the northeast through broad agricultural plains, river valleys and forests to the rolling hills of the Shawnee Hills in the south. Major waterways include the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Wabash and Rock rivers, while the Illinois Waterway links the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River system. The state contains 102 counties, covers approximately 55,519 square miles of land and had 12,812,508 residents in the 2020 census. Admitted to the Union in 1818 as the 21st state, Illinois has long been a center for agriculture, manufacturing, finance, transportation and logistics.