After declining by about 65,000 during the pandemic, Chicago’s population now has grown for a third straight year, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Those new figures show Chicago with 2,731,585 residents as of 2025, an increase of 5,253 residents compared to 2024. It remains the third-largest city in the United States.
Beginning with Census Bureau estimates of Chicago’s 2023 population, the city has steadily bounced back from the pandemic population loss. However, it still hasn’t matched its pre-pandemic population.. In the 2020 Census, Chicago had 2,746,388 residents. Its population then dropped for two years in a row, hitting 2,680,609 by 2022. Chicago needs to grow by roughly another 16,700 residents to fully recover the population lost since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
“As we continue to build safer communities and Chicago remains more affordable than other major American cities, it’s no surprise that more people are choosing to visit, invest in, and call Chicago home,” a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson told the Sun-Times. “This data is just the latest in a string of milestones.”
Last month, for instance, O’Hare International Airport also reclaimed its status as the world’s busiest airfield, tallying the most takeoffs and landings.
Within the six-county Chicago metro area, Cicero lost the most people, 266, with Waukegan close behind at 250.
The community gaining the most people after Chicago was far west suburban Plainfield, with 1,218 new residents in 2025. Right behind Plainfield was Oswego, near Aurora, also in the far west suburbs, with 1,210 new people in 2025, according to the Census Bureau.