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Living in Chicago, IL

Favorable reasons for living in Chicago far outweigh negative factors. Possibly the most underrated reason to live in Chicago is being on the Great Lakes and having access to clean, fresh drinking water that tastes great right from the tap. You’ll never have to buy another bottle of water again!

Chicago offers a plethora of attractions and fun things to do, though, the city’s lakefront parks, trails, and beaches that line its 20-mile shoreline are by far its biggest attraction and it’s all free. Sports lovers may not have a better sports town anywhere, with two major league baseball teams (Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox), a storied football franchise (Chicago Bears), a basketball team that was home to Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls), an “original six” hockey team (Chicago Blackhawks), and a major league soccer team (Chicago Fire Soccer Club). This doesn’t even begin to speak to the hundreds of amateur sports leagues for Chicagoans who enjoy playing sports as much as watching them.

All that sports can work up an appetite and there’s no better place to satisfy it than in Chicago’s neighborhoods, where you’ll find every imaginable palette of food. A city of neighborhoods, one could spend a lifetime indulging in the diversity and charm that each offers. Are there negatives to living in the Windy City? Yes, the weather. However, even the unpredictable Chicago weather can be turned into a positive. As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in Chicago just wait a few hours and it will change!

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there are few places with such a diverse population. More Poles live in Chicago than anywhere in the world outside Warsaw and more Mexicans live here than anywhere in the country. From Asian to Ukrainian and every ethnicity in between, Chicago is home to over 500,000 foreign-born immigrants!

Chicago, IL employment & economy

Chicago is not only culturally diverse, it’s also economically diverse, which keeps the city unemployment rate low. No one industry dominates the city’s economy, though some industries stand out. Every major bank in the country and a number of international banks have branches in the city. Chicago is home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, founded in Chicago as a commodities exchange in the 19^th century and now the largest options and futures exchange in the world. The medical industry is also well represented in teaching and research facilities as well as many major hospitals. Finally, the software industry is growing rapidly with most of the major companies, such as Microsoft, Google, and Intel, maintaining offices in a city that has been termed “Silicon Prairie” for all the start-ups that are blossoming in the city’s small business incubators. One of the primary reasons that Chicago is so attractive to 21^st-century industries is its highly educated workforce, due mainly to the availability of some of the country’s best schools and universities.

Education in Chicago, IL

The Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school district in the US with more than 600 schools providing quality education to approximately 400,000 children. Top universities in the city include University of Chicago, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Columbia College, to name a few.