MCIC was founded in 1990 by a consortium of business and philanthropic leaders at the Commercial Club of Chicago to regularly collect demographics and baseline data on social policy and human needs for the 6-county metropolitan Chicago region.

Faced with a $650,000 defined benefit pension liability for staff hired before 2005,[2] MCIC closed on February 29, 2012.

[4] MCIC provided a variety of research and consulting services for branch site analysis, and strategic market planning.

[5] MCIC was part of a group of national and community-based organizations that served as auxiliary census data distribution centers.

[7] MCIC was the only National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) partner in the metropolitan Chicago region.