In the years leading up the pandemic, Chicago’s downtown was witnessing unprecedented growth — both in population and construction activity. Dozens of high-rises were being built at a time, adding thousands of rental units and hotel rooms to the city each year. And despite the downturn caused by the pandemic, Chicago’s Loop and broader central business district is still the fastest growing neighborhood in the city, and the fastest growing downtown in the nation, a report from the Chicago Loop Alliance suggests.
In terms of raw numbers, The Loop, saw an increase from 29,000 residents in the 2010 census to 42,300 residents in 2020 — its highest population yet. This is roughly a 45% gain, the report details, meaning that Chicago’s Loop remains the fastest growing community within the city. To put this in perspective however, Edgewater, one of the city’s most densely populated neighborhoods has a population of 56,300 residents while trendy Logan Square has just over 71,000 residents.
The Loop’s population growth has been significant in the last couple of decades, but the neighborhood still has a long ways to go in catching up with many other Chicago neighborhoods in total resident count.
But when we take a step back and look at the broader downtown area, which includes neighborhoods like River North, Streeterville, the West Loop, South Loop, and others, the numbers become even more significant. The report pegs the total population of Chicago’s downtown at 244,445 residents, or roughly 9% of Chicago’s total population. Double-digit growth in the Near North Side and Near South Side has helped Chicago’s downtown grow faster than any other major downtown district in the country, the Chicago Loop Alliance report proclaims.
While downtown Chicago has growth at a rapid pace in the last decade, the story is much different for the city’s far south side. Neighborhoods like Englewood, Roseland, West Pullman, and Fuller Park all witnessed double-digit population loss. The lop-sided downtown growth and far south side decline meant that the entire city of Chicago only had a 2% population gain between 2010 and 2020, bringing the city’s current population to 2,746,388.
