News Updates

New Community Data Snapshots help communities track progress and plan for the future

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) released a new set of Community Data Snapshots to help local government staff and leaders, as well as academics, nonprofits, and community members, track progress and make informed decisions in their communities.

Each snapshot — available for the region’s 284 municipalities, 77 Chicago community areas, and 7 counties — summarizes key details about demographics, employment, housing, transportation habits, and more.

What’s new this year?

This year’s release includes data from CMAP’s updated Land Use Inventory and improved employment commute locations. The commute data provides a clearer picture of where residents travel for work and where employees in each community commute from — even if outside of northeastern Illinois.

Built-in comparisons

Along with the latest data, the snapshots highlight how communities compare to the county and region. The “Change over time” section compares 16 key indicators with data from at least 10 years ago, making long‑term shifts easy to see at a glance.

Three ways to explore the data

• View the interactive dashboard of select data points.
• Download the snapshot report.
• Download the data tables from CMAP’s Data Hub.

Want to share your community’s data?

CMAP’s media toolkit includes text and graphics — including customizable templates — you can use on your social media, newsletter, and website to share this useful data.