Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in the state outside the Chicago metropolitan area. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents in 2020.
Champaign shares the main campus of the University of Illinois with its twin city of Urbana, and is also home to Parkland College, which gives the city a large student population during the academic year. Due to the university and a number of technology startup companies, it is often referred to as a hub of the Illinois Silicon Prairie. Champaign houses offices for the Fortune 500 companies Abbott, Archer Daniels Midland, Caterpillar, John Deere, Dow Chemical Company, IBM, and State Farm. Champaign also serves as the headquarters for several companies, including Jimmy John's.
History
19th century
Champaign was founded in 1855, when the Illinois Central Railroad laid its rail track two miles west of downtown Urbana. Originally called "West Urbana", it was renamed Champaign when it acquired a city charter in 1860. Both the city and county name were derived from Champaign County, Ohio, which took its name from the French word for "open, level country".20th century
In February 1969, Carl Perkins joined with Bob Dylan to write the song "Champaign, Illinois", which Perkins released on his album On Top. The band Old 97's took another Bob Dylan song, "Desolation Row", and combined its melody with new lyrics to make a new song "Champaign, Illinois", which they released with Dylan's blessing on their 2010 album The Grand Theatre Volume One. It achieved considerable popularity. The two "Champaign, Illinois" songs are not similar to each other, except that Bob Dylan was involved in both of them.On September 22, 1985, Champaign hosted the first Farm Aid concert at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium. The concert drew a crowd of 80,000 people and raised over $7 million for American family farmers.
21st century
In 2005, the University of Illinois in Champaign was the location of the National Science Olympiad Tournament, attracting young scientists from all 50 states. The city also hosts the state Science Olympiad competition every year. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign once again hosted the National competition on May 20–22, 2010.Joan Severns was the city's first female mayor, serving between 1979 and 1983. Deborah Frank Feinen, who has served as mayor since 2015, is the city's second female mayor. In May 2017, the city's first female-majority city council was sworn in.
Geography
Location
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Champaign has a total area of, of which is land and is water.Champaign is a city in central Illinois and is located on relatively high ground, providing sources to the Kaskaskia River to the west, and the Embarras River to the south. Downtown Champaign drains into Boneyard Creek, which feeds the Saline Branch of the Salt Fork Vermilion River.
Champaign shares a border with the neighboring city of Urbana; together they are home to the University of Illinois. Champaign, Urbana, and the bordering village of Savoy form the Champaign–Urbana Metropolitan Area, also known as "Champaign–Urbana". It may also be colloquially known as the "Twin Cities", "Chambana" or "Shampoo–Banana".
Climate
The city has a humid continental climate, typical of the Midwestern United States, with hot summers and cold, moderately snowy winters. Temperatures exceed 90 °F on an average of 24 days per year, and typically fall below 0 °F on six nights annually. The record high temperature in Champaign was 109 °F in 1954, and the record low was −25 °F, recorded on four separate occasions − in 1899, 1905, 1994 and 1999.Demographics
As of the 2020 census there were 88,302 people, 34,851 households, and 15,624 families residing in the city. The population density was. There were 40,314 housing units at an average density of. The racial makeup of the city was 53.45% White, 17.97% African American, 0.37% Native American, 16.69% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.96% from other races, and 7.52% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.74% of the population.There were 34,851 households, out of which 21.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.63% were married couples living together, 8.77% had a female householder with no husband present, and 55.17% were non-families. 39.97% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.01% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.13 and the average family size was 2.30.
The city's age distribution consisted of 17.0% under the age of 18, 29.0% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 17.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 110.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $49,467, and the median income for a family was $78,118. Males had a median income of $36,680 versus $27,805 for females. The per capita income for the city was $30,245. About 10.3% of families and 23.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.3% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2000 | Pop 2010 | % 2000 | % 2010 | ||
| White alone | 48,168 | 52,533 | 45,409 | 71.34% | 64.81% | 51.42% |
| Black or African American alone | 10,471 | 12,474 | 15,625 | 15.51% | 15.39% | 17.96% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone | 132 | 143 | 99 | 0.20% | 0.18% | 0.11% |
| Asian alone | 4,591 | 8,510 | 14,705 | 6.80% | 10.50% | 16.65% |
| Pacific Islander alone | 20 | 56 | 27 | 0.03% | 0.07% | 0.03% |
| Other race alone | 145 | 162 | 431 | 0.21% | 0.20% | 0.49% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial | 1,267 | 2,066 | 4,289 | 1.88% | 2.55% | 4.86% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 2,724 | 5,111 | 7,717 | 4.03% | 6.31% | 8.74% |
| Total | 67,518 | 81,055 | 88,302 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Government
Economy
In addition to the University of Illinois, Champaign is also home to Parkland College. Herff Jones, formerly Collegiate Cap and Gown, and Kraft also form part of the city's industrial base. Kraft's plant is one of the largest pasta factories in North America. The Champaign-Urbana community is a well-known hub for startups, including a top ranking from Silicon Prairie News in 2019.Champaign is home to nationally recognized record labels, artist management companies, booking agencies, and recording studios. Polyvinyl Records, Undertow Music, Parasol Records, Great Western Record Recorders, Pogo Studios, and Nicodemus Booking Agency are all based in Champaign.
In April 2011, The Christian Science Monitor named Champaign-Urbana one of the five cities leading the economic turnaround based on jobs; the information sector added over 300 jobs within a year and unemployment dropped 2.1%.
Research Park
Champaign features a large technology and software industry mostly focusing on research and development of new technologies. The Research Park, located on campus land just south of the State Farm Center and run by the University of Illinois, is home to many companies, including Caterpillar, ADM, John Deere, AbbVie, Motorola Solutions, Brunswick, Capital One, Cargill, NVIDIA, Riverbed Technology, Abbott Laboratories, Yahoo! and the State Farm Research and Development Center.The technology incubator at Research Park, EnterpriseWorks, has launched 350+ startups since opening in 2014. Famous graduates of EnterpriseWorks include Agrible, which was sold to Nutrien in 2018 for $63 million. Another success story is Starfire, which graduated from EnterpriseWorks and moved into other space at the Research Park. In 2022, Starfire was growing so fast, it bought its own 190,000 SF building in the northwest side of Champaign.
Top employers
According to the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, the top ten employers in the city are| # | Employer | # of Employees |
| 1 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 13,934 |
| 2 | Carle Foundation Hospital | 6,921 |
| 3 | Champaign Unit 4 School District | 1,664 |
| 4 | Kraft Heinz | 925 |
| 5 | Christie Clinic | 916 |
| 6 | Champaign County | 893 |
| 7 | Urbana School District#116 | 828 |
| 8 | FedEx | 815 |
| 9 | OSF HealthCare | 774 |
| 10 | Parkland College | 741 |
Other major employers include Horizon Hobby, Jimmy John's, Plastipak, SuperValu, and Wolfram Research. Numerous other software and technology companies also have offices in Champaign including Ansys, Amdocs, Cloudflare, Instarecon, Phonak, Power World, and Caterpillar Simulation Center. The largest high technology employer is Wolfram Research, with more than 400 employees in Champaign. The United States Army Corps of Engineers maintains the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign.