Known for its vasttallgrass prairies,[4] DuPage County has become mostly developed and suburbanized, although some pockets of farmland remain in the county's western and northern parts.[5] Located in theRust Belt, the area is one of few in the region whose economy quickly became dependent on the headquarters of several large corporations due to its close proximity to Chicago. As quarries closed in the 1990s, land that was formerly used for mining and plants was converted intomixed-use, master-planned developments to meet the growing tax base.[6] The county has a mixed socioeconomic profile and residents ofHinsdale include some of the wealthiest people in theMidwest. On the whole, the county enjoys above average median household income levels and low overall poverty levels when compared to the national average.[7]
Prior to European-American settlement, the area that is now DuPage County was inhabited by thePotawatomi people. By 1800, the Potawatomi had established 4 major villages along local rivers within the county, and had a network of trails crisscrossing the area. The first European-American settlers arrived in what is now DuPage County in 1832, and the Potawatomi population was forced out of the region only one year later after ceding their land in theTreaty of Chicago.[8] DuPage County was officially formed on February 9, 1839, out ofCook County.[9] The county took its name from theDuPage River, which was, in turn, named after a French fur trapper, DuPage.[10] The first written history to address the name, the1882 History of DuPage County, Illinois, by Rufus Blanchard, relates:[11]
The DuPage River had, from time immemorial, been a stream well known. It took its name from a French trader who settled on this stream below the fork previous to 1800. Hon. H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the writer that J. B. Beaubien had often spoken to him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose station was on the bank of the river, down toward its mouth, and stated that the river took its name from him. The county name must have the same origin. Col Gurden S. Hubbard, who came into the country in 1818, informs the writer that the name DuPage, as applied to the river then, was universally known, but the trader for whom it was named lived there before his time. Mr. Beaubien says it is pronounced Du Pazhe (having the sound of ah, and that the P should be capitalized). This was in reply to Mr. Blodgett's inquiry of him concerning the matter.
DuPage County at the time of its creation in 1839
The first white settler in DuPage County was Bailey Hobson who, with Lewis Stewart, built a house in 1831 for the Hobson family at a site about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of present-day downtown Naperville.[12][13] Hobson later built a mill to serve surrounding farmers. Today, the Hobson house still stands on Hobson Road in Naperville, and the location of the mill is commemorated with a millstone and monument in today's Pioneer Park.[14]
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 336 square miles (870 km2), of which 327 square miles (850 km2) is land and 8.9 square miles (23 km2) (2.6%) is water.[15] TheDuPage River and theSalt Creek flow through DuPage County. According to the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, the highest point in the county is located at the Mallard Lake Landfill, which at its highest point is 982 feet (299 m) above mean sea level.[16]
In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Wheaton have ranged from a low of 14 °F (−10 °C) in January to a high of 87 °F (31 °C) in July, although a record low of −26 °F (−32 °C) was recorded in January 1985 and a record high of 105 °F (41 °C) was recorded in July 1995. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.56 inches (40 mm) in February to 4.60 inches (117 mm) in August.[17]
DuPage County, Illinois – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
The largest European ancestries reported among DuPage County residents in the 2022American Community Survey are German (147,639 people or 16% of the population),Irish (112,329 people, 12.2%),Polish (89,682, 9.7%),Italian (82,745, 9%), andEnglish (62,404, 6.8%). The largest Hispanic group in the county isMexican Americans, numbering 106,907 and making up 11.6% of the county's population, and over 70% of the total Hispanic population. The most common Asian ancestries in the county areIndian (59,305, or 6.4% of the total population),Filipino (20,141, 2.2%),Chinese (17,031, 1.8%), andPakistani (11,046, 1.2%).[34][35]
The population of DuPage County has become more diverse. The population of foreign-born residents increased from about 71,300 in 1990 to 184,000 by 2022 estimates.[36] Of the 20% of residents who were born abroad, 45.2% were born inAsia, 25.8% were born inLatin America, 24.3% were born inEurope, 3.5% were born inAfrica, 3.1% were born inSouth America, 0.2% were born inOceania, and 1.1% were born inCanada.[37] The top countries of birth for immigrants in DuPage County areMexico (36,146),India (35,486),Poland (14,107), thePhilippines (11,352), andChina (10,116).
Theper-capita income in DuPage County was $88,588 according to 2022 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was the second highest of any county in Illinois, surpassed only by that ofLake County, located north of Chicago.[38] As of 2022, DuPage County has a poverty rate of 6.7%, much lower than the national and state average.[39] 8% of children under 18 and 6% of seniors in the county are in poverty.
There were 325,601 households, out of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.90% weremarried couples living together, 7.90% had a female householder with no husband present and 28.00% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.27.
In the county, 26.70% of the population was under the age of 18, 8.20% was from 18 to 24, 32.40% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64 and 9.80% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.20 males. For every 100 females, age 18 and over, there were 94.20 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $98,441 and the median income for a family was $113,086.[40] Males had a median income of $60,909 versus $41,346 for females. The mean or average income for a family in DuPage County is $121,009, according to the 2005 census. Theper capita income for the county was $38,458. About 2.40% of families and 3.60% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 3.90% of those under age 18 and 4.30% of those age 65 or over.[40]
Argonne National Laboratory, one of the United States government's oldest and largest science and engineering research laboratories,[49] is in unincorporated, southeast DuPage County.[50] Both laboratories conduct tours of their facilities.
Oakbrook Terrace'sDrury Lane Theatre is an important livetheatre in DuPage County. TheTivoli Theatre, one of the first theatres in the United States to be equipped with sound, is still in use in Downers Grove.[58] In addition to showing movies, the Tivoli is home to several local performing arts groups.[59] TheMcAninch Arts Center located on the Glen Ellyn campus of the College of DuPage also presents a variety of music, dance, theater and comedy year round both on its three indoor stages and its outdoor Lakeside Pavilion.
DuPage County is governed by a County Board whose duties include managing county funds and business, levying taxes, and appropriating funds. The County Board exercises powers not assigned to other elected officials or other boards.[61]
The county is divided into six districts. Each district elects three members to the County Board in staggered two-year and four-year terms. The Chairman of the County Board is the chief executive officer of DuPage County, and is elected countywide every four years.
DuPage County is part of Regional Office of Education #19 which is coterminous with the county's corporate boundaries.[62]
As of December 2022, the DuPage County Board is controlled by the Democratic Party by an 11 to 7 margin.[63]
DuPage County was historically a stronghold of theRepublican Party, and a classic bastion of suburban conservatism. In recent years, DuPage County has joined other inner-ring suburbs outside large U.S. cities trendingDemocratic in presidential election years since the 1990s. The county also leans increasingly Democratic in state and local politics. In the2018 Illinois gubernatorial election,J. B. Pritzker became the first Democratic candidate for the governorship to win the county in nearly 100 years. DuPage County voters backed Pritzker in his2022 re-election bid by a large margin.[64]
The county supportedBarack Obama, a Chicago resident, in 2008 and 2012 (albeit narrowly in 2012). Obama was the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the county sinceFranklin Pierce in1852. The only time prior to 2008 that a Republican had failed to win the county was in 1912, when the GOP was mortally divided and former president andProgressive Party nomineeTheodore Roosevelt won over half the county's vote. As a measure of how Republican DuPage was at the time, it was one of the few counties whereFranklin D. Roosevelt was shut out in all four of his successful campaigns, and it also rejectedLyndon Johnson in his 44-state landslide of 1964. FDR and LBJ were the only Democrats to win 40 percent of the county's vote in the 20th century, andBill Clinton was the only other Democrat to come remotely close to that figure.
DuPage County was historically a fiscally and socially conservative Republican stronghold, though in recent years has become more politically liberal especially on issues of race and immigration.[66][67] In recent years, DuPage County has been shifting more Democratic; it has not supported a Republican for president sinceGeorge W. Bush in 2004. Obama carried it four years later with a margin almost as large as Bush's 2004 total. The Democratic trend culminated withJoe Biden winning nearly 58% of the vote in 2020.Donald Trump was the first Republican nominee for president since 1912 to get less than 40% of the DuPage County vote, both in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Many DuPage County communities which normally vote Republican, including but not limited toNaperville,Lisle,Wheaton,Glen Ellyn,Carol Stream,Downers Grove, andElmhurst did not support Trump in 2016.[68] In December 2019, shortly after the U.S. House of Representativesvoted to impeach Donald Trump,Carol Stream-basedChristianity Today published a controversial editorial calling for the removal of Trump from office, citing the need to hold him to the same standards to which they heldBill Clinton in the 1990s (who was the last Democratic nominee for president to get less than 40% of the DuPage County vote).[69]
In theU.S. House of Representatives, DuPage County is in the5th,6th,8th,11th and14th districts. In the 2018 general election, despite the county's historical Republican dominance, Democrats won every congressional district within the county.[70]
Republicans historically controlled local politics in DuPage County from the nineteenth century until modern times. During the twentieth century, Democrats only held countywide office twice. In 1934 William Robinson was elected Circuit Clerk and Arthur Hellyer was elected Treasurer. That year also saw the first ever Democratic majority county board and only such majority that century.[71][72] Robinson and Hellyer each served one term; Robinson lost his bid for a full term in 1936 and Hellyer left the Treasurer's office to make a failed bid for probate judge in 1938.[73] In 2018, as part of a larger suburban realignment, Democratic candidate Jean Kaczmarek won the election for County Clerk and Daniel Hebreard won the President of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.[70][74][75]
During that same period Democrats were sporadically elected to the county board and township government. In 1972, Don Carroll was elected to the County Board. In the Democratic wave of 1974, Jane Spirgel, Mary Eleanor Wall, and Elaine Libovicz were elected. All four were from the northeastern portion of DuPage, which at that time was the most Democratic region of the county.[76] Eventually, Republicans regained all seats on the board when Jane Spirgel ran forIllinois Secretary of State withAdlai Stevenson III under theSolidarity Party banner.[77] In 2000, Linda J. Bourke Hilbert was elected. Like her 1970s counterparts, she was from the northeastern portion of the county.[78] During the 2008 Democratic wave, three Democrats were elected to the board.[79] After the initial Obama wave, Republicans reasserted themselves on the board and by 2017 Democrats held only one of the eighteen board seats. In the 2018 general election, Democrats won seven seats as well as the offices of County Clerk and Forest Preserve District President.[70]
In 1973, a slate of Democrats took eight of nine offices inAddison Township. This feat would not be replicated until 2017 when Democratic candidates won a majority of offices inNaperville andLisle townships.[80] Between these two victories, Democrats only held two township offices. Mark Starkovich served asYork Township Supervisor from 1989 to 1993 and Martin McManamon has served asWayne Township Highway Commissioner since 2013.[81]
In 2020, Democrats won control of the DuPage County Board, expanding on their 2018 lead.[82] In 2022, Democrats expanded their majority in the County Board to 11 seats out of 18.[83] Concurrently, DemocratDeb Conroy was elected as the chairman of the County Board.[84]
The DuPage CountyRegional Office of Education provides regulatory and compliance oversight, quality services and support, and a variety of other services and information to the public schools within 42 school districts of the county that provide education to over 161,000 students in 245 schools.[85]
The following is a list of school districts that not only includes those supported by the DuPage County Regional Office of Education, but includes others which may have schools and/or administrative headquarters outside of DuPage County but which have any territory, no matter how slight, within the county:[86]
DuPage is served by a number of modes of public transit overseen by theRegional Transportation Authority.Pace operates the bus system within the county. DuPage County is also well-covered byMetra, the Chicago-area commuter rail system. Three of Metra's eleven lines pass through the county:Milwaukee District West Line,Union Pacific West Line, andBNSF Line. Nineteen Metra stations are located within DuPage County.
In 2008, theRegional Transit Authority included an 13.3-mile (21.4 km) extension of a different branch of the Blue Line, from its current western terminus at Forest Park toYorktown Center inLombard, Illinois. Several feeder bus services would also be implemented in this plan. The prospect of this extension was also listed in the Chicago region's 2030 master plan.[92]
North–south roads (from west to east) include: IL 59 (Neltnor Boulevard), IL 53, I-355 (Veterans Memorial Tollway) and IL 83 (Kingery Highway). East–west roads (from south to north) include: I-55 (Stevenson Expressway) I-88 (Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway), US 34 (Ogden Avenue), IL 56 (Butterfield Road), IL 38 (Roosevelt Road), IL 64 (North Avenue),Army Trail Road, US 20 (Lake Street), IL 19 (Irving Park Road) and IL 390 (Elgin–O'Hare Expressway), which begins at the Thorndale Avenue exit onI-290 and ends on Lake Street, in Hanover Park.I-294 partially enters DuPage County on its eastern border betweenWestchester, in Cook County, andOak Brook, in DuPage County. Only the southbound lanes enter the county though. HistoricU.S. Route 66 crosses through the southeast portion of the county near Darien and Willowbrook.[93]
^Kuethe, T. (April 26, 2019). "Changes in Farms and Farmland in Illinois".Farmdoc Daily.9 (76). Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
^Thompson, Richard A."The French Connection".History of DuPage County: DuPage Roots. DuPageHistory.org.Archived from the original on 13 March 2009. Retrieved3 January 2009.
^Blanchard, Rufus (1882)."History of DuPage County, Illinois".Illinois Digital Archives. Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian. RetrievedJanuary 3, 2009.
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