Located within the Midwest region of the United States, is the state of Illinois. It is the 5th most populous state within the country. Most of the states residents, nearly 65% of them reside within the Chicago metropolitan area. The environment of Illinois reflects a rural character or a small town. The state of Illinois is often noted as being a microcosm for the entire country.
There are a great abundance of natural resources in the state of Illinois including petroleum and coal in the south. Within the central and northern regions of the state there are great agricultural productivity and small industrial cities. With Chicago within the northeast, Illinois has a broad economic base. The state is a vital transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the Great lakes to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River. O'Hare International Airport has been considered amongst the world's busiest airports for decades. Voted as the "most average state," the state of Illinois has had a long reputation as a bellwether in both politics and social and cultural terms.
The state of Illinois achieved its statehood in 1818. Settlers began coming from Kentucky in the 1810s and within some time, the state filled up from south to north. Chicago city was established in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River. This is among the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Illinois' rich prairie land became some of the worlds most productive and valuable farmlands with the railroads and the invention of John Deer's self-scouring steel plow. Immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden came to live.
The growth of the various industrial jobs together with coal mining in the 1900s started to attract the several immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois became an important manufacturing center during both of WWI and WWII. The Great African American Migration from the rural South to Chicago created a large community which established the city's famous blues and jazz cultures.
Ulysses S. Grant, Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln are amongst the only U.S. Presidents selected which are from the state of Illinois. President Reagan was however, the only one raised and born in the state. The official state slogan "Land of Lincoln" is displayed on the states' license plates these days as a way to honor and commemorate Lincoln.
Economy
In 2008, the dollar gross state product for Illinois was approximately $634 billion and the state's per capita gross state product that same year was around $40,006. During 2009, the per capita personal income in Illinois was estimated to be $41,411. During the month of March 2010, the state of Illinois reported an unemployment rate of 11.5%. By May, this figure had dropped to 10.8%.
Manufacturing
The state of Illinois is one of the country's top manufacturers with a yearly value added productivity by manufacturing more than $107 billion in the year 2006. About three-quarters of the state's manufacturers are situated within the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region and 38% of Illinois' approximately eighteen thousand nine hundred manufacturing plants are situated in Cook County.
According to the statistics of 2006, the top manufacturing companies within Illinois based upon value-added were $18.3 billion in manufacturing chemicals, $13.4 billion in manufacturing machinery, $12.9 billion in food manufacturing, $11.5 billion in fabricated metal products, $7.4 billion in transportation equipment, $7.0 billion in rubber and plastic products and $6.1 billion in electronic and computer machinery.