Located 40 miles west of Chicago, a snapshot of DuPage County shows us:

• Population: 912,044 (2001 estimate)
• Area: 334 square miles
• Population density: 2,710.3 people per square mile
• Majority population: 84% White
• Median household income (Dollars): $79,314
• Age distribution: 73.3% over age 18
• Avg. life expectancy: 77.7 years (1999)

All data are 2000 data with exceptions noted.

This area appears on European maps as early as 1782. Through the early 1800’s, settlers began to fill the prairie with homesteads and communities that drove out the Native Americans. From the 1840s until the 1950s, population growth in the area was fairly steady. Since the 1960s, population growth has been about 100,000 people every decade.

This growth has caused a constant weaving of new cultures and attitudes into the existing community. During the 1860s, about one-third of the population was foreign-born. By the 1920s, suburbanization of Chicago resulted in a DuPage County population that was predominantly “non-native” (came from outside the area). Whether the population growth has been largely German-born (as it was in the 1850s) or Latino (as the 2000 Census shows us), DuPage County has been enriched by the cultures of its new residents.