Bureau County and Illinois’ new 16th District

Because the Census showed Illinois had grown at a slower rate than some other states, it lost one member in the House of Representatives, and movement to the Chicago area resulted in geographically-larger downstate districts.

The new 16th District forms an L-shape around Chicago and the collar counties, sweeping up to the Wisconsin border north of Rockford, dropping south and reaching as far to the west as Bureau County, then continuing east to the Indiana border, just north of Champaign.

A report issued by the Census Bureau Wednesday showed detailed demographic data of the new Congressional districts.

Bureau County’s 34,606 residents make up only a fraction of the 16th District’s 713,840 residents. How similar are local residents to the residents in the entire district now served by Rep. Adam Kinzinger?

Bureau County has a lower percentage of young children than the rest of the district, but not by much. About 5.5 percent of the county’s residents are under 5, compared to 5.8 percent of the 16th District.

Not surprisingly, Bureau County also has more older people with 18.4 percent of the county’s residents 65 and over. That percentage in the District is 14.7 percent.

And Bureau County’s residents are more overwhelmingly white. In the county, 96.8 of all residents are white, compared to 91.2 percent overall in the 16th District. The black population in Bureau County is 0.8 percent, compared to 4.2 percent districtwide. There is also a lower Hispanic population in Bureau County with 7.9 percent, compared to a district percentage of 8.7 percent.

Bureau County residents also have a lower income than the district as a whole. The median household income in Bureau County is $48,046, compared to $52,101 districtwide.

When it comes to education, 88.5 percent of Bureau County’s residents 25 and older have a high school diploma, compared to 89.2 percent of district residents.