Cook County, Illinois: New American county. In 2024, voted D+42%. Democratic peak: D+53 in 2008.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+42MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- New AmericanAkashic typology
- Population
- 5,182,0902024 5-year
- Median household income
- $83,4982024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 43.6%2024 5-year
- Black
- 22.2%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 26.8%2024 5-year
- County seat
- Chicago
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+53 in 2008MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+49 in 1920MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Allendale County, SC · similarity 1.00
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Cook CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Cook County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | +12.8% |
| 1896 | −18.4% |
| 1900 | −4.4% |
| 1904 | −32.1% |
| 1908 | −18.6% |
| 1912 | +13.0% |
| 1916 | −6.6% |
| 1920 | −49.0% |
| 1924 | −41.6% |
| 1928 | −6.2% |
| 1932 | +13.8% |
| 1936 | +27.5% |
| 1940 | +10.9% |
| 1944 | +15.9% |
| 1948 | +8.9% |
| 1952 | −0.7% |
| 1956 | −13.9% |
| 1960 | +13.0% |
| 1964 | +26.4% |
| 1968 | +9.5% |
| 1972 | −7.4% |
| 1976 | +8.7% |
| 1980 | +12.4% |
| 1984 | +2.6% |
| 1988 | +12.4% |
| 1992 | +30.0% |
| 1996 | +40.1% |
| 2000 | +40.0% |
| 2004 | +41.1% |
| 2008 | +53.4% |
| 2012 | +49.3% |
| 2016 | +53.1% |
| 2020 | +50.2% |
| 2024 | +41.6% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 1,447,821 | 583,852 | 2,079,239 | ||
| D | 1,725,973 | 558,269 | 2,325,405 | ||
| D | 1,611,946 | 453,287 | 2,180,344 | ||
| D | 1,488,537 | 495,542 | 2,014,819 | ||
| D | 1,629,024 | 487,736 | 2,137,466 | ||
| D | 1,439,724 | 597,405 | 2,049,434 | ||
| D | 1,280,547 | 534,542 | 1,865,907 | ||
| D | 1,153,289 | 461,557 | 1,726,666 | ||
| D | 1,249,533 | 605,300 | 2,146,655 | ||
| D | 1,129,973 | 878,582 | 2,026,144 | ||
| D | 1,112,641 | 1,055,558 | 2,180,735 | ||
| D | 1,124,584 | 856,574 | 2,163,097 | ||
| D | 1,180,814 | 987,498 | 2,209,748 | ||
| R | 1,063,268 | 1,234,307 | 2,311,037 | ||
| D | 1,181,316 | 960,493 | 2,336,538 | ||
| D | 1,537,181 | 895,718 | 2,432,899 | ||
| D | 1,378,343 | 1,059,607 | 2,445,269 | ||
| R | 977,821 | 1,293,223 | 2,276,844 | ||
| R | 1,172,454 | 1,188,973 | 2,367,939 | ||
| D | 1,216,636 | 1,015,800 | 2,245,899 | ||
| D | 1,275,367 | 924,659 | 2,206,191 | ||
| D | 1,168,141 | 938,454 | 2,114,807 | ||
| D | 1,253,164 | 701,206 | 2,009,457 | ||
| D | 919,231 | 690,146 | 1,664,232 | ||
| R | 716,283 | 812,063 | 1,540,171 | ||
| R | 226,141 | 688,973 | 1,113,652 | ||
| R | 197,499 | 635,197 | 893,137 | ||
| R | 379,438 | 435,695 | 849,913 | ||
| O | 130,702 | 74,851 | 429,312 | ||
| R | 152,990 | 230,400 | 415,091 | ||
| R | 103,762 | 229,848 | 392,945 | ||
| R | 186,193 | 203,760 | 401,134 | ||
| R | 152,146 | 221,823 | 379,608 | ||
| D | 144,604 | 111,254 | 261,330 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
9.0%
Irish
8.4%
Polish
7.0%
Italian
4.8%
English
3.6%
American
2.2%
French
0.9%
African American
17.8%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 38.0 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$83,498
Cook County ranks in the top 25% of US counties.
Cook County$83,498
Illinois$83,390
United States$80,734
Cook County ranks in the top 25% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
13.5%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1817.9%
Working age (18–64)12.2%
Seniors (65+)14.0%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
64.2%
speak English only
Spanish21.1%
Other Indo-European8.3%
Asian & Pacific Islander4.3%
Other languages2.1%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 45.8% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Cook County's presidential margins have exceeded D+40 in recent cycles, driven by Chicago's dense, majority-minority electorate. Its 5.3 million residents make it the second-most populous county in the United States.
Cook County has leaned Democratic in recent presidential elections, reaching a Democratic margin of fifty-three points in 2008. Between 2020 and 2024 it moved nine points toward the Republican candidate — part of the sharpest rightward shift recorded among any group of places in the country.
Its demographics describe the shift: a 44% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $83,498, and a population of 5,182,090. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Allendale County and Essex County.
Most similar counties
Compare Cook County with…
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Cook County, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/17031/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
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Frequently asked questions
How did Cook County, Illinois vote in 2024?
In 2024, Cook County, Illinois voted Democratic by 41.6 points (D+42), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 2,079,239 votes cast, 1,447,821 went Democratic and 583,852 went Republican.
What is Cook County, Illinois's political typology?
Akashic places Cook County, Illinois in the "New American" typology — Communities where a large share of households speak a language other than English — multilingual, Democratic-leaning overall, yet the hardest-swinging bloc toward the Republican Party in 2024. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 22 times, Republican 11 times, and other 1 times.
When did Cook County, Illinois last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Cook County, Illinois voted Republican was 1972.
How many people live in Cook County, Illinois?
Cook County, Illinois has a population of 5,182,090 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Cook County, Illinois?
Median household income in Cook County, Illinois is $83,498 — above the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Cook County, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Cook County, Illinois from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 22 went Democratic and 11 went Republican. The county's typology — "New American" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.